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HISTORY 



OF 



CHATHAM. NEW JERSEY 



BY 
AMBROSE E. VANDERPOEL 

MEMBER OF THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



PRINTED BY 

CHARLES FRANCIS PRESS 
NEW YORK 

c, 



C l^\^la 






Copyright 1921 by 
Ambrose E. Vanderpoel 



DEC -5 1921 
g)r,| A630600 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
Situation of Chatham — Minisink Path — Provincial History of 
New Jersev briefly Reviewed — Changes of the Partition Line — 
Chatham originally in West Jersey, later in East Jersey— First 
Purchases of Indian Lands — Founding of Elizabeth — Growth of the 
Settlement — Governor Lawrie buys Indian Lands near Chatham — 
Elizabeth Township extends to the Passaic River at Chatham — Prop- 
erty Disputes— Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery — First Settlements in 
Passaic Valley opposite Chatham ...... 

CHAPTER n 
First Settlements in Morris County — Purchases of Indian Lands 
by the Pioneers — Purchases by the West Jersey Proprietors — 
Allotment of the Land — Proprietary Surveys in Chatham — John 
Budd an extensive Landowner — Settlement of Chatham — Counties 
and Townships instituted — Chatham formerly known by various 
Names — Its present Name adopted ...... 



20 



CHAPTER III 

Commencement of the Revolution — Committees of Safety — Repres- 
sion of Toryism — The Liberty Pole — Military Organizations — 
Chatham a Militia Station — The Bridge Carefully Guarded . . 37 

CHAPTER IV 

BlocR.\PHic.\l. — John Budd and his Descendants— The Horton 
Family — Jacob Morrell — Gen. Elias Dayton — Capt. Jonathan Dayton 
— Col. Sylvanus Seely ......... 61 

CHAPTER V 
BioGR.^PHic.^L — Dr. Peter Smith — Rev. Hezekiah Smith — Rev. James 
Caldwell 101 

CHAPTER VI 

The Signal Station on Hobart Hill — Location of the Alarm Post — 
Description of the Beacon — Orders and Correspondence respecting 
the Construction of Alarm Posts — The Alarm Guns "Old Sow" and 
"Crown Prince" — Erection of a Monument ..... 127 

CHAPTER VII 

Operations in the .Autumn of 1776 — Gen. Washington's Retreat to 
the Delaware — Local Militia Assembled — Gen. Lee takes Post at 
Chatham — Brief Sketch of his Career — His Insubordination — The 
British try to Reach Chatham — First Battle at Springfield — 
Arrival of Col. Vose's Detachment from Ticonderoga — Threatened 
Advance by the British upon Morristovvn — Gen. Maxwell takes Com- 
mand of the Local Troops ........ 152 



iv History of Chatham 

CHAPTER vin 

Opening of the Campaign of 1777 — Maxwell's Activities — Wash- 
ington at Morristown — Many of the Soldiers billeted in private 
Houses — Their Sufferings from Disease and Famine — Pennsyl- 
vania and Rhode Island Troops at Chatham — General Sullivan 
stationed here — His Discontent — His Cori-espondence — Captain Bau- 
man commands the Artillery at Chatham — His Perplexity caused by 
conflicting Orders ......■••• 1^3 

CHAPTER IX 
General Stephen in command of the Post at Chatham — Reference 
to the Local Hospital — Stephen's Letters — Courts-Martial held 
here — Chatham occupied hy the Philadelphia Associators — Sergeant 
Young's Diary — Captain Henry Lee ordered to Chatharn-— Morgan's 
Rangers stationed here — Sullivan's unsuccessful Expedition against 
Staten Island 210 

CHAPTER X 

The Second Continental Light Dragoons in Winter Quarters at 
Chatham — A Cavalry Sword unearthed on the Campground—Cor- 
respondence respecting the Cavalry — Letters of Governor Living- 
ston relating to the Overtures of the British Government . . 240 

CHAPTER XI 

Shepard Kollock and the Neiu Jersey Journal .... 260 

CHAPTER XII 

The Detention- at Chatham of Generals Phillips and Reidesel 

OF Burgoyne's Army. Prisoners of War 
The Terms of Surrender at Saratoga — Controversy respecting 
alleged Violations of the Terms — Burgoyne returns to England, and 
is succeeded by Phillips — The captured Army imprisoned in the 
South— The Exchange of Phillips and Reidesel negotiated— They set 
out for New York on Parole — They are stopped at Elizabeth, Con- 
gress having refused to ratify the Exchange — They are removed to 
Chatham, and later to Bethlehem— They are ultimately released. 285 

CHAPTER XIII 
The "Hard Winter" of 1779-80— Choice of eligible Sites for the 
Army's Winter Quarters — Localities near Chatham considered — 
A Position near Morristown selected — Passage of the Troops 
through Chatham — Their Hardships and Sufferings in Camp — 
Lord Stirling's Expedition against Staten Island— .'Attempt to cap- 
ture Washington — Courtship and Marriage of Ensign d'Anterroches. 296 

CHAPTER XIV 

Insubordination of the Troops at Morristown — Knyphauscn in- 
vades New Jersey — Washington moves from Morristown _ to 
Chatham— He occupies the Short Hills before Knyphausen's Arrival 
—The British reach Springfield— They burn the Village of Con- 
necticut Farms — They retreat to Elizabethtown Point—- Clinton 
attempts to reach Morristown — Encounters a stubborn Resistance at 
Springfield— Abandons the Enterprise — Wayne moves to Chatham — 
Court-Martial of Doctor Shippen 318 



Contents 



CHAPTER XV 
Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line at Morristown — Part of the 
New Jersey Brigade ordered to Chatham — Revolt of the Troops 
at Pompton — They march to Chatham — They are promised Redress 
— They return to Pompton — They again become Insubordinate— 
The Nlutiny suppressed — The Case of the "Back Shad" and the 
"Inhabitants of NeH-ark." ........ 340 

CHAPTER XVI 
Movements of the Northern Army during the Yorktown Cam- 
paign — Wafhington threatens an Attack upon New York to cover 
his March to Virginia — A permanent Encampment established at 
Chatham — Bake-Ovens constructed by Rochambeau's Commissary 
— Great quantities of Stores collected — The American Troops 
hal' at Chatham and Springfield, the French at Whippany — Wash- 
ington's Head(|uar;ers at Chatham — Newspaper Comments and Mili- 
tary Correspondence — The March toward the South suddenly and 
unexpectedly resumed — Success of Washington's Stratagem. . . 368 

CHAPTER XVII 
Proposed Execution of Captain Asgill in Retaliation for the 
Murder of Captain Huddy — Circumstances of Huddy's Death — 
Washington is appealed to — He demands the Surrender of the 
Murderer — His Demand refused — He directs a British Prisoner to 
be selected by Lot for Retaliation — The Lots are drawn — Asgill the 
Victim ............ 399 

CHAPTER XVIII 
The Asgill Case continued — Asgill is conveyed to Philadelphia and 
from thence to Chatham — Attempts to secure an Unconditional 
Prisoner as a Victim — Asgill's Execution delayed — He is admitted 
to his Parole and resides at Dayton's Headquarters in Chatham 
— Correspondence relating to his Case ...... 417 

CHAPTER XIX 
The Asgill Case continued — Efforts of the Prisoner's Friends to 
obtain his Release — Washington refers the Matter to Congress 
— Asgill's Correspondence — Intervention of the French Court — 
Asgill is released by Congressional Resolution .... 437 

CHAPTER XX 
The Asgill Case concluded — Asgill leaves Chatham and returns to 
England — Accusations of harsh and cruel Treatment are made — 
Washington denies the Charge — The Asgill Case dramatized in 
France — Asgill's subsequent Career ....... 453 



CHAPTER I 

Situation of Chatham — Minisink Path — Provincial History of New 
Jersey briefly Reviewed— Changes of the Partition Line- 
Chatham originally in West Jersey, later in East Jersey — First 
Purchases of Indian Lands — Founding of Elizabeth — Growth of 
the Settlement — Governor Lawrie buys Indian Lands near 
Chatham — Elizabeth Township extends to the Passaic River at 
Chatham — Property Disputes — Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery 
— First Settlements in Passaic Valley opposite Chatham. 

THE Borough of Chatham is situated in Morris County, 
on the west side of the Passaic River, and is traversed 
by the main road leading from Elizabeth to Morristown. 
The Passaic at Chatham is the boundary between Morris 
County on the west, and the counties of Essex and Union 
on the east, the two latter being separated by the highway. 
Shortly after the opening of the 19th century, a section of 
the road in the older part of the village was acquired by 
the Morris Turnpike Company, and became a turnpike. 
It is now officially called Main Street within the borough 
limits, but on the east side of the river the name Morris 
Turnpike is still retained, although the company whose title 
is thus perpetuated has ceased to exist; and while such 
designation therefore is no longer accurate, we will often 
find it convenient to refer to the street as the turnpike in the 
following pages. 

Prior to the coming of the white men, the aborigines 
had made a permanent trail, called the Minisink Path, 
across the State of New Jersey, from the Delaware River to 
the ocean, which was regularly traveled by the Minisink 
Indians on an annual excursion to the seashore, as well as 
by local tribes on shorter journeys or war expeditions. The 
path crossed the Passaic at Chatham by means of a natural 



2 History of Chatham 

ford about four rods below the Main Street bridge.' The 
ford was called by the white men the Minisink. Crossing; 
and the name seems to have been applied also to the neigh- 
boring settlement which in the aftertime became the village 
of Chatham. The first settlers were attracted by the water- 
power afforded by the Passaic for the operation of saw- and 
grist-mills; and the selection of this particular place as a 
village site was doubtless due to the existence of the Indian 
trail, which was the only avenue in this part of the Province 
whereby the primeval forest could be readily penetrated, 
and was naturally followed by the pioneers when they en- 
tered this region. 

In early writings reference is occasionally found to "the 
country of the Minisinks." The territory of this tribe lay 
beyond the Kittatinny Mountains, on either side of the 
Delaware River, extending from the Water Gap to the 
Lackawaxen. These Indians journeyed to the ocean every 
summer for the combined purposes of fishing, clam drying, 
salt water bathing, and the gathering of shells for the manu- 
facture of wampum. The clams were dried upon pieces of 
bark, and carried away.' The Minisink Path leading to the 
sea commenced at Minisink Island in the Delaware, ran 
through Culver's Gap and past Culver's Pond to the 
Muscoaetcong River near Lake Hopatcong, and thence, by 
way of the Succasunna Plains, Dover, Morris Plains, Mon- 
roe and Madison, to Chatham. Crossing the Passaic at the 
latter place, it followed the approximate line of the Morris 
Turnpike through the gap of Hobart Hill, and curved 
toward the south just before reaching the Rahway River 
in Springfield. It then maintained a southerly direction to 
the Raritan River, which it crossed at a point about three 
miles above Perth Amboy; and, skirting the shore of Raritan 

'Essex County Road Book, A.B. 34. 
"Ellis's Monmouth County, 9. 



The Minisink Path . 3 

Bay, it led to Middletown and thence to the Highlands of 
Navesink.^ 

The Minisink Path, as its name implies, was more than 
a scarcely perceptible trail, which could be discerned and 
followed only by the practised eye of the Indian; if we may 
judge by the manner in which it is referred to in early 
records, and delineated upon ancient maps, it was a well- 
beaten track, which, in all probability, was worn below the 
level of the adjacent soil by the tread of tribal generations. 
It was so well known and so clearly defined that it at once 
became a recognized landmark when the country was ex- 
plored, and was soon converted into a road by the settlers 
in various localities along its length — at first as a mere 
bridle-path for travelers on horseback, and later as a 
widened and improved thoroughfare for the passage of 
vehicles. It is represented in Chatham by Main Street and 
King's Road, and in Madison by King's Road and Park 
Avenue;'"' although the modern highway is very much 
straighter than the aboriginal path, which, like all Indian 
trails, pursued a devious course in order to avoid natural 
obstacles, and to reach the most advantageous places for 
fording the streams. 

The first settlement in the locality where Chatham now 
lies sprang up in close proximity to the Passaic, and gradu- 
ally spread along the road in each direction from the stream. 

' Morristown Year Book, 1911, 99; Whitehead's East Jersey under the 
Proprietors, 28, and map at p. 118; Whitehead's Perth Amboy, 268. One of 
the affidavits to the Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery was made by Jeremiah 
Osborn of Morristown, at that time (1741) 80 years of age, who stated, 
among other things, that the Minisink Path "went near as the road now 
goes," east of the Passaic at Chatham. He had reference to the road which 
antidated the Morris Turnpike, the general course of which was the same 
as that of the turnpike, though it was not so straight. 

'In Madison the path ran close by a celebrated spring which flows 
from the hillside near the northeast corner of Park and Ridgedale Avenues. 
It is said that the first settlers suspended a bottle from a neighboring bush 
or tree to be used in drinking from the spring, and from this circumstance 
the name of Bottle Hill, as Madison was formerly called, originated. Tra- 
ditions vary, however, respecting the origin of the name. 




4 History of Chatham 

The early village was thus divided by the river into two 

sections, which were probably about equal in population and 

extent, and were often distinguished, during and after 

the Revolution, as "Chatham, Morris County," and 

"Chatham, Essex County." Gordon's 

New Jersey Gazetteer, published in 

1834, and Barber & Howe's Historical 

Collections of New Jersey, dated ten 

years later, state that the Passaic River 

flows through the village; and the 

former work, in its description of 

Ancient Signet Ring Springfield TownshIp in Essex County, 

mentions "part of Chatham" as one of the villages 

of that township. But at a later period the increase of 

population, and the consequent growth of towns and villages, 

caused their boundaries to be more sharply drawn; and as 

a result, the corporate limits of Chatham are now confined 

to the west, or Morris County, side of the Passaic, while 

the adjacent territory on the opposite side forms part of 

other municipalities. 

In the year 1664, the Dutch colonies in America, known 
as the New Netherlands, passed from the possession of 
Holland to that of England, and were granted by King 
Charles II. to his brother, the Duke of York, in whose 
honor the name of New York was adopted. During the 
same year the Duke conveyed to Lord John Berkeley and 
Sir George Carteret that part of his holdings in the New 
World which lay west of the Hudson River between Dela- 
ware Bay and "the northermost branch of the said Bay or 
River of Delaware, which is 41° 40' of latitude"; Berkeley 
and Carteret thus becoming the original proprietors of the 
province thereafter known as Nova Caesarea or New Jersey. 
This territory was subsequently divided into two provinces, 
called East Jersey and West Jersey, which, by transfers 
from the original grantees, came into the possession of a 
large number of proprietors; East Jersey being governed by 



The Provincial Boundary 5 

a board of twenty-four, having its seat of government at 
Perth Amboy, while the affairs of West Jersey were admin- 
istered at Burlington by a much greater number. The line 
of partition between the provinces soon became a subject oj 
dispute, and it was altered more than once in an attempt to 
effect a division which would be acceptable to both pro- 
prietaries. As a result of these changes, the site of Chat- 
ham, which, owing to its geographical position, was properly 
a part of East Jersey, was included at one time in the 
western colony. 

The two provinces were created in 1676 bv agreement 
between Carteret and the West Jersey proprietors, the latter 
having acquired the interest of Berkeley. On Julv i of that 
year a deed of partition was executed in London, known in 
history as the Quintipartite Deed from a descriptive word 
used in the document itself in reference to the five contract- 
ing parties, which provided, in effect, that New Jersev should 
be separated into two equal portions — the eastern half being 
the share of Carteret — and that the dividing line between 
them should start from the point on the Delaware River 
which the grant of the Duke of York had named in latitude 
41 ■ 40' North, and should run straight to the most southerly 
point on the east side of Little Egg Harbor. It was soon 
found, however, to be extremely diiEcult, if not impossible, 
to make a fair and equal division when the country was an 
unexplored wilderness, about which reliable information 
could not be obtained; and, owing to the want of accurate 
surveys, a question arose as to the proper location of the par- 
tition line. The following excerpt from a letter addressed to 
the East Jersey proprietors in England, at a later date, 
illustrates the difficulties which the situation presented: 

And thirdly some other precise bounds needs be appointed for 
the north end of the hvo provinces, than what the deed of Partition 
mentions for as to yt bound viz 41 deg: k 40' our Sur\eyor tells us 
it is not to be found on any branch of delaware river as the deed 



6 History of Chatham 

mentions, for no branch is in yt latitude in the true and proper Sense 
of a branch, wch is a stream coming out of the river yt makes a true 
branch, but no such can be found in yt latitude, or near to it, only the 
Surveyours found some brooks running into the river but where they 
Joined to the river was farre from ye latitude. And Indeed it is very 
disputable & unclear what is delaware river itselfe above the falles 
for two great streams meet farre beyond the falles northerly, and 
which of these is delaware river, cannot be easily determined, but 
rather seemeth Impossible for the name delaware was only given to 
it as it extended from the falles to the sea. fourthly seeing the deed of 
Partition is grounded on a false mapp, and a wrong account of the 
country', as to its Survey, and delaware river itselfe was supposed to 
have a branch in that latitude, and yet hath none, we Judge yt any 
Judge will Say, the deed of Partition must be wholly laid aside and 
a new line of devision ordered to be run if yt already run in great 
part, doe not stand, and if a new line must be run, we are ready to 
think yt by equal devision the new line shall be more favourable to 
east Jersey than this already agreed & run in part but nothing can be 
certainly affirmed till west Jersey be surveyed as well as east Jersey.' 

Several ineffectual attempts were made by the two 
proprietaries to agree upon the points between which the 
partition line should run; and at length the question was 
submitted to arbitrators, who decided that the boundary 
"shall runn from ye north side of ye mouth or Inlett of ye 
beach of little Egg Harbor on a streight lyne to Delaware 
river north north west and fifty minutes more westerly ac- 
cording to natural! position & not according to ye magnet 
whose variation is nine degrees westward."- This course 
however, inclined much too far toward the west, and gave 
East Jersey more than an equal moiety. In 1687, George 
Keith, surveyor-general of East Jersey, undertook, to run the 
line, commencing at Little Egg Harbor and surveying north- 
ward to a point on the south branch of the Raritan River 
near the present village of Three Bridges. Had the course 

'New Jersey Archives, Ser. 1, II, 21. Original in Library of the New 
Jersey Historical Society. 

' New Jersey Archives, Ser. 1, I, 524. 



The Provincial Boundary 7 

been continued to the Delaware, the eastern division would 
have contained nearly 27,000 acres more than an equal half 
of the Province; and the injustice of such a partition became 
so apparent that the West Jersey proprietors would not 
allow him to proceed. Keith's line is perpetuated by the 
present boundary between the counties of Monmouth and 
Ocean on the east, and Burlington on the west; and his sur- 
vey may be traced upon a modern map of New Jersey by 
continuing this line southward to Little Egg Harbor, and 
northward to the Raritan in Hunterdon County. 

With the view of making a more just and equal division, 
another agreement was entered into in London on September 
5, 1688, between Dr. Daniel Coxe, governor of West 
Jersey, and Robert Barclay, governor of East Jersey, in 
behalf of their respective boards of proprietors. This 
agreement affirmed the Keith line as far as the same had 
been surveyed, and provided that the boundary, when con- 
tinued from the point on the Raritan where Keith stopped, 
instead of running straight to the Delaware, should pursue 
a devious course, in such manner as to increase the area of 
West Jersey. The line, it was declared, should be drawn 
from the northern extremity of Keith's survey, by way of 
the north branch of the Raritan River, to the head waters 
of the Passaic, thence down the latter stream to its junction 
with the Pequannock, thence up this river to the 41st degree 
of north latitude, and thence along that parallel to the 
Hudson.' Prior to the adoption of this partition, the 
present county of Morris, or at any rate a large part of it, 
was regarded by the East Jersey proprietors as included in 
their possessions; but by the selection of the Passaic River 
as a section of the boundary, Morris County as a whole was 
ceded to the western province. 

This division was duly accepted, and for many years 
the West Jersey authorities exercised control and jurisdiction 
over the region where Chatham now lies; yet the agreement 

'Smith's New Jersey, 197. 



8 History of Chatham 

was not entirely satisfactory, and the boundary long con- 
tinued in dispute. The East Jersey proprietors, claiming 
under the grant of the Duke of York to latitude 41° 40' 
North on the Delaware River, maintained that to be the 
"north partition point" ; and in 1 7 1 9 an act of the Assembly 
was passed providing that the boundary should be a straight 
line drawn from that point to Little Egg Harbor. The line 
was not actually run until the autumn of 1743, when John 
Lawrence surveyed it from the harbor to a point on the 
Delaware a little north of latitude 41° 12'. This partition 
has always been recognized by East Jersey, although it gave 
the western province a territorial advantage. Lawrence's 
line bisected Budd's Lake in the westerly part of Morris 
County; and consequently the east part of the county, in- 
cluding the site of Chatham, which had been ceded to West 
Jersey by the Coxe-Barclay agreement of 1688, was once 
more embraced in the eastern division. 

The proprietors of East Jersey acquired their interest 
in the Province as a real estate speculation which promised 
handsome returns. The transfer from Carteret's repre- 
sentatives involved but little expenditure; immense quantities 
of land could be bought from the Indians in exchange for 
merchandise of trifling cost; and the land, when surveyed in 
parcels of a size convenient for development and cultivation, 
could be conveyed to settlers at prices which would yield 
large profits. Needless to say, the proprietors strongly op- 
posed all attempts on the part of individuals to usurp their 
prerogatives by purchasing land directly from the natives, 
as many of the pioneers were disposed to do. 

The history of Chatham may be said to commence in 
1 65 I, when a large tract of land in this vicinity was bought 
from the Indians. In the latter part of that year Cornelis 
Van Werckhoven, a schcpen (magistrate) of Utrecht in 
Holland, obtained from the Amsterdam Chamber leave to 
establish two colonies or manors in the New Netherlands; 



Heerman's Purchase 9 

and to carry out his plan he employed Augustine Heerman, 
a prominent resident of New Amsterdam, to make four pur- 
chases of Indian lands, two being in New Jersey and two on 
Long Island. The first tract lay in eastern New Jersey, 
fronting on Staten Island Sound, and was encompassed by 
the Raritan River, a creek called Pechciesse, and a straight 
line drawn from the source of one to the source of the other. 
In after years the question was raised whether the name 
Pechciesse had been applied to the Passaic River as was 
commonly supposed, or to the Rahway River, which was 
thought by some to correspond more accurately with the 
description in the deed. If the latter stream was meant, the 
conveyance included the region where Chatham is situated; 
but if the tract was bounded by the Passaic, the site of 
Chatham lay immediately outside of its confines. No attempt 
to colonize this district was made during the Dutch oc- 
cupancy of the New Netherlands, for the Amsterdam 
Chamber, upon learning of Heerman's purchases, con- 
sidered it inadvisable to allow so much land to become the 
property of a single individual; and accordingly permitted 
Van Werckhoven to retain only one of his tracts, compelling 
him to relinquish the others. He chose one of the plots on 
Long Island, and the title to the other three reverted to the 
aborigines.^ 

In the autumn of 1664, shortly after the Dutch posses- 
sions in America had passed into the hands of the English, 
a tract of land which apparently included the site of Chat- 
hem was again sold by the Indians. In this transaction, 
which is known in history as the Elizabethtown Purchase, 
the territory was acquired by a party of English colonists 
from Long Island, who had formed an association for the 
purpose of establishing a settlement in the fertile and in- 
viting region beyond the Hudson. They founded the city of 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 20, 21; O'Callaghan's New Netherlands, 187; 
Letter No. 2, appended to Answer to Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery. 



lo History of Chatham 

Elizabeth, N. J., and were called the Elizabethtown As- 
sociates. Their purchase included approximately 500,000 
acres, extending from the mouth of the Raritan to the mouth 
of the Passaic — about seventeen miles — and running west- 
ward into the interior double that distance; being in part the 
same property which the Indians had sold to Heerman 
thirteen years before. It embraced, on paper, the whole of 
the present county of Union, and parts of Essex, Middlesex, 
Somerset, Hunterdon and Morris. The conveyance was 
sanctioned by the local authorities. Governor Richard 
Nicolls of New York (whose jurisdiction Included New 
Jersey), Issuing a patent or grant to the associates officially 
confirming their title.' 

This transaction was antedated by the sale of the entire 
Province of New Jersey by the Duke of York to Berkeley 
and Carteret (Intelligence of which had not yet reached 
America), and, therefore, from the standpoint of the home 
government, was Illegal and void. At first the proprietors 
did not question the validity of the Indian deed and the 
Nicolls grant, but it was not long before the inevitable con- 
troversy arose between them and the Elizabethown associ- 
ates respecting the title to the soil — a quarrel which con- 
tinued with ever-increasing bitterness for a full century, and 
was finally set at rest only by the War of Independ- 
ence. Both parties lost little time In selling lots suitable for 
plantations; causing disputes between the settlers, some of 
whom had purchased their land from the proprietors, while 
others had bought the same plots from the associates. 

Although the Indian deed and the Nicolls grant were so 
drawn as apparently to convey a tract extending westward 
about thirty-four miles from tidewater (I.e., double the 
distance from the mouth of the Raritan to the mouth of the 
Passaic), the assertion was afterwards made by the 
savages that the western limit of the purchase was the 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 29, 36. 






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51 


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Property Disputes 



1 1 



Minisink Path, just west of the Rahway River in the present 
township of Springfield — only seven or eight miles from the 
original settlement of Elizabethtown. The general course 
of the path in that locality was approximately north and 
south ; and the Indians insisted that the land lying beyond 
the trail had not been conveyed to the associates; the truth 
of this statement being admitted by many of the whites. 

As the town of 
Elizabeth increased in 
size, the associates caused 
the land lying toward the 
west to be surveyed in 
small lots, which were 
divided among their 
number and sold by 
them to settlers; these 
surveys extending in the 
course of time to the 
Rahway River. Although 
this district was clearly 
included in the Eliza- 
bethtown Purchase (be- 
ing east of the Minisink 
Path) it had been oc- 
cupied to some extent, 
prior to these surveys, by planters holding grants or leases 
from the proprietors, who naturally resisted the attempts 
of the associates to dispossess them; the disputes being 
aggravated by costly and protracted litigation. 

The opening up and settlement of the country lying 
beyond the Minisink Path, and extending to the Passaic op- 
posite the site of Chatham, occasioned further disputes of 
similar nature; these difficulties arising during the adminis- 
tration of Gawen Lawrie, who was appointed deputy gov- 
ernor of East Jersey in 1683. Upon his arrival from Eng- 
land, Lawrie established his residence in Elizabeth; and 




CoIhiimI \\ Lilhcr Li 



12 History of Chatham 

during his term of office he adopted a policy of conciliation 
in all his dealings with the associates, making no effort to 
contest the validity of their title. On the contrary, he 
requested some of their leaders to point out the town limits 
to him, saying that he wished to buy of the aborigines, in 
behalf of the proprietors, some land lying west of the Eliza- 
bethtown Purchase. The associates were unable to comply 
immediately with his request, since their western bounds had 
never been definitely fixed; and they assembled the Indian 
sachems to guide a party of the townspeople into the wilder- 
ness for the purpose of indicating and marking the limits of 
the town. 

The party consisted of Richard Clarke, Jr., Captain 
John Baker, Jonas Wood, Stephen Osborn, Joseph Meeker 
and Joseph Wilson, together with two boys, Richard Baker 
and John Cromwell, who went to see the woods; and the 
Indians were led by Wewanapo, a cousin of one of the saga- 
mores who had signed the Indian deed. Setting out on July 
1 6, 1684, they went "to a Plain back of Piscataway, to a 
marked tree with some stones about it and a stake by the 
tree," and thence "forward towards the Green River, near 
where it comes out of the mountain, and lodged by the river- 
side that night; and the next day they made a circle or com- 
pass along the foot of the mountain, by the directions of 
the Indian, till they came to the Minisink Path, and then 
came down to Elizabethtown." Scarcely had this territory 
been explored when a controversy arose concerning it. The 
associates maintained that, according to an admission of 
Wewanapo, this compass included only a part of their hold- 
ings, and that the town lands in point of fact were much 
more extensive; while, on the other hand, the proprietors 
alleged that Captain Baker and his companions had bribed 
the savages to designate a large area lying entirely beyond 
the limits of the town, to have then and there bought this 
additional land of the red men, and to have afterwards rep- 
resented it to Lawrie as part of the Elizabethtown Purchase. 



Lawrie's Purchase 13 

There is reason to believe that this contention was well 
founded, because Baker was convicted of having violated 
the provisions of a recent law which prohibited individuals 
from buying Indian lands, and because the tract which Law- 
rie subsequently purchased of the savages appears to have 
been in part the same as that located by the exploring 
party.' 

The tract which Lawrie bought for the proprietors 
extended from the Rahway River in what is now Spring- 
field Township to the Passaic River opposite the site of 
Chatham. The line of the Minisink Path from Springfield 
to Chatham, corresponding roughly with that of the Morris 
Turnpike, formed his northern boundary. The northwest 
corner of the tract was indicated by a marked walnut tree 
standing near the path, on the east side of the Passaic, below 
the present Main Street bridge ; and another corner or angle 
was fixed by a marked birch tree near a watercourse then 
called Wahackick Creek, in New Providence.^' This land 
was included — nominally at least — in the Elizabethtown 
Purchase of 1664 (although the associates had not caused 
it to be surveyed and settled) , but Lawrie was assured by the 
Indians and by some of the whites that such was not the 
case. It reached from Chatham to Bound Brook, and parts 
of it were soon occupied by settlers who claimed under 
proprietary right.' 

The territorial extent of the township of Elizabeth was 
not legally determined until 1693, "^vhen its limits were fixed 
by legislative enactment. In October of that year an act 
of the Assembly was passed providing that 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 228, 229; Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery 54- 
Tanner's New Jersey, 76. :>• > 

'Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery, 56, 114. 

'Joseph Harrison, in an affidavit appended to the Elizabethtown Bill in 
Chancery, stated that about 40 years before (that is, about the year 1700) 
Iheophiliis Pierson, when negotiating with the Indians for the purchase of 
a tract jving vvest of Newark, was told by them that they had sold the land 
south of the Minisink Path and between the rivers (which he understood to 
be the Passaic and Rahway Rivers), to Governor Lawrie, for one Mrs. 
Haige, a Scotch woman. 



14 History of Chatham 

The Township of Elizabeth-Town, shall include all the L?nd 
from the mouth of Raway River West to Woodbridge-Stake, and 
from thence Westerly along the Line of the County to the Partition 
Line of the Province, and from the mouth of the said Raway River, 
up the Sound to the mouth of the Bound-Creek, and from thence to 
the Bound-Hill, from thence North-west to the Partition Line of 
the Province.' 

As this statute was subsequent to the Coxe-Barclay 
agreement, which declared the Passaic to be in part the par- 
tition line of the Province, the river now formed the west 
boundary of Elizabeth township. This boundary was again 
officially defined in 1739, when Elizabeth was incorporated 
as a free borough by a charter granted by King George II, 
declaring the western limit of the municipality to be the 
Passaic River from the mouth of Dead River to the Mini- 
sink. Crossing.' Thus the early settlement on the east 
side of the Passaic, which, during the Revolution and for 
many years afterwards, was considered part of Chatham, lay 
at the time of which we write within the corporate limits 
of Elizabeth. 

In the autumn of 1736 the associates continued their 
surveys from the Rahway River to the Passaic. They did 
not extend their operations down the latter stream quite 
as far as the Minisink Crossing, but adopted as their north- 
ern boundary a line drawn to the Passaic at Chatham in the 
vicinity of the Watchung Avenue bridge; and their survey 
covered the greater part of the valley above that point. It 
included much of the land which Lawrie had bought of the 
Indians, which was already occupied In part by settlers 
holding proprietary grants; and the action of the associates 
in selling the lots into which their survey was divided pro- 
voked fresh quarrels and renewed litigation; the hostility 
between the two factions resulting In serious riots in the 
village of Turkey, as New Providence was then called. 

' Hatfield's Elizabeth, 240. 
'Ibid., 320. 



Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery 15 

For many years the courts were occupied with suits 
and counter suits between rival claimants to the soil. While 
similar causes of action arose and were brought to trial in 
other parts of the Province, the strife seems to have been 
most vexatious in Essex County, particularly in regard to 
the Elizabethtown lands. 

At length a suit was commenced by the East Jersey 
proprietors against some of the people of Elizabeth which 
was designed to finally determine their long-continued con- 
troversy. In this proceeding they filed the famous Eliza- 
bethtown Bill in Chancery — a document prepared in the 
most thorough and painstaking manner, which, in setting 
forth the grounds and particulars of their demand, recited 
in detail the history of Elizabeth, enumerated all noteworthy 
events which had any bearing upon the subject of land titles, 
reviewed the pretensions of the associates and those claim- 
ing under them, and mentioned the numerous suits which 
had been previously brought to try the question of owner- 
ship. Some conception of the enormous labor involved in 
its preparation may be gained from the fact that three years 
were devoted to the work, and that in manuscript form it 
covered 1500 pages. The bill was filed in 1745, and was 
printed during the two years next ensuing. In printed form 
it is a folio of 124 pages with double columns, having an 
appendix of 40 pages, together with explanatory maps. 

The formal denial of its allegations was set out in the 
"joint and several answer" of 449 freeholders and inhabi- 
tants of Elizabethtown named in alphabetical order, which 
was filed in 1751, and printed the next year in form similar 
to that of the bill itself, though containing only 48 pages. 
This document also reviewed the history of the town; so that 
the bill and answer constitute one of our chief sources of 
information respecting the colonial history of northern New 
Jersey; although their allegations, being naturally biased, 
must be accepted with due caution. 

The proprietors chose an opportune time for the prose- 



1 6 History of Chatham 

cution of this suit. The provincial government was then 
administered by Lewis Morris, who had presumed (with- 
out due authority, it was said) to establish a court of 
chancery, and to exercise the prerogatives of chancellor. 
He was himself the holder of land by proprietary right, 
and, under the circumstances, it seemed almost certain that 
his decision would be in their favor. Morris died, however, 
in 1746, and the reins of government passed into the hands 
of Jonathan Belcher, who, as a resident of Elizabeth, was 
thought to be in sympathy with the associates. Probably 
for this reason the case was not brought to trial before 
him. While the suit was still pending, the attention of the 
litigants was distracted by the outbreak of the French and 
Indian War; and soon afterwards came the popular excite- 
ment and indignation caused by the passage of the Stamp 
Act, and augmented by subsequent oppressive legislation, fol- 
lowed by the War of Independence. During these troublous 
times the people had no desire for litigation. All pro- 
ceedings in the suit were suspended, and after the close of 
the Revolution they were not renewed; for under the new 
conditions incident to a republican form of government, a 
judicial decision respecting colonial land titles would have 
possessed but little value. ^ 

The lands lying on the east side of the Passaic at Chat- 
ham in the neighborhood of Main Street bridge are be- 
lieved to have been first occupied by settlers holding pro- 
prietary grants based upon the Lawrie purchase of 1684. 
The earliest survey to an individual in this locality, as ap- 
pears from the East Jersey records, was to Dr. John John- 
son, by virtue of a warrant of the proprietors, dated June 
6, 1 701, and recorded in Liber O of East Jersey Surveys, 
page 209. The deed reads in part as follows: 

The Proprietors of ye province of East New Jersey To all per- 
sons to whom these presents shall come send Greeting. Know yee 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 369-372. 




MAP OF THE JOHNSTON TRACT 

Showing Chatham Bridge in the Southwest Corner. 

From Original in Possession of the Dickinson Family. 

Legend: May 3d, 1749 Surveyed for Andrew Johnston Esqr the above tract at Passaik 

river in the County of Essex bearers, were James Mitchel, & er Raymond, 

Sworn before me this afd for that purpose. I have Protracted it by a Scale of 

ten chains to inch, and make the strict qty of to be 558 Acres. 

Jona mpton D: Suyr 




PROPRIETARY SURVKVS TO JOHXSOX AND GORDON. 
Drawn Over a -Mndern Map ai the Locality. 



Johnson's Purchase 17 

th.it wee ye sd prop Have Granted Releassed & Confirmed and by 
these presents Do grant Release & Comfirme Unto John Johnston of 
ye County of ]\Ionmouth Esqr In right of headland All that tract 
of land Seituate Lying & being in ye County of Essex Beginning 
upon passaick River fifteen chaines above where ye Minasinks road 
to Elizabeth Town Crosseth ye sd river & from thence running North 
fifty six degrees Easterly one hundred thirtie six chaines & an half 
from thence running north fiftj- two degrees westerly to sd pissaick 
river & thence up ye river to where it begann.' 

Dr. Johnson's boundary line, as thus defined, 
started at the Passaic approximately fourteen chains above 
Mam Street bridge, and, crossing the turnpike at or near the 
mouth of the River Road, it ran to a point in the neighbor- 
hood of White Oak Ridge; whence it turned toward the 
northwest and continued straight to a point on the river not 
far from the dividing line between the townships of Mill- 
burn and Livingston. It thus formed a triangle, having its 
base on the Passaic and its apex near White Oak Ridge. 

Dr. John Johnson (Johnston or Johnstone), a leading 
citizen of Perth Amboy and a member of the board of 
proprietors, was the owner of several large tracts of land 
in East Jersey. He died in 1732, and his eldest son dying 
the same year, his property was inherited by his second son, 
Andrew, who was also one of the proprietors, and served 
for a time as chairman of the board.-' Andrew caused the 
property above described to be resurveyed and mapped in 
1749, possibly for the purpose of correcting an error made 
by the surveyor in 1701, who recorded the superficial area 
of the land as 410 acres, instead of 558, the correct figure. 
This map, or a contemporaneous copy of it, is now in the 
possession of the Dickinson family of Chatham. 

The second transfer to an individual in this part of 
the Passaic valley was a grant "unto Sir Robert Gordon of 
"Gordonston in ye Kingdome of Scotland Esqr in full of his 

'Liher G of East Jersey Deeds, p. 361, in office of the Secretary of State. 
" Whitehead's Perth .Amboy, 68, 72. 



1 8 History of Chatham 

first division of Land in ye sd province," of a tract sur- 
rounding the Johnson property. Its description reads: "All 
that tract of Land Seituate Lying & being upon ye South 
side of passaick river Containing after allowance for barrans 
&c fifteen hundred acres Beginning at ye upper Corner of 
John Johnston's land above where ye path from Elizabeth- 
town to Minisinks Crosseth ye sd river from thence runing 
north seaventy Eight deg: Easterly one hundred Sixty 
Seaven Chaines from thence north one hundred chaines 
thence north fourty four deg: westerly to ye sd 
passaick River from thence up allong ye river & sd 
John Johnston's land to where it begann."' This boundary 
commenced at Dr. Johnson's upper corner, embraced the 
village of White Oak Ridge, and thence ran northwardly 
and northwestwardly, between Cheapside and West Living- 
ston, to a point on the river about half a mile below South 
Orange Avenue. Although the description is not wholly 
free from ambiguity, it was doubtless the intention of the 
proprietors to exclude the Johnson tract, and to sell only 
a strip of land surrounding it; for the previous transfer 
was legal, and they could have conveyed to Ciordon a 
valid title only to the property lying outside of Johnson's 
boundaries. 

The Gordon family eventually sold the property to one 
Rockhead, who conveyed it in small plots to the pioneers. 
The early surveys show that the plantations bought by the 
first settlers in the neighborhood of the turnpike from the 
crown of Hobart Hill to the Passaic were bounded by the 
Gordon line and not by that of Johnson. 

Neither Johnson nor Gordon, as far as we know, lived 
in this vicinity. Their purchases seem to have been a mere 
speculation. The first settler on the east side of the river 
at this point is believed to have been Samuel Carter, whom 

'Book C of Patents, p. 241, in office of the Secretary of State. The 
survey is recorded in Liber O of East Jersey Surveys, p. 213, foUovfing tnat 
of Dr. Johnson. 



Early Settlements 19 

we find living on what is now the Vanderpoel homestead 
farm as early as 1726, when the primitive road which suc- 
ceeded the Minisink. Path was officially surveyed as a public 
highway.' When and under what circumstances Carter 
acquired his property the records do not show. It lay within 
the Johnson tract, his house standing between the road 
now represented by the turnpil<e and Johnson's southern 
boundary; but no record of a survey or conveyance of his 
plantation has been found. 

In 1740, 1 74 1 and 1742 several neighboring plots 
were conveyed by the proprietors, in some cases to Benja- 
min Carter alone, and in others to James and Benjamin 
Carter as joint purchasers. The Carter family thus acquired 
large tracts on the east side of the Passaic opposite 
Chatham. Their holdings lay immediately south of 
Gordon's line, extending from the river about 40 chains 
eastward, diagonally crossing the line of the turnpike, and 
running into the present golf links of the Canoe Brook 
Country Club. Their lands also extended up the river; so 
that, with the exception of eight and a half acres fronting 
upon the stream near the present Summit Avenue bridge, 
they owned practically the entire valley in what is now the 
city of Summit from the vicinity of Morris Avenue to the 
Morris Turnpike. The tract of eight and a half acres 
which they did not own was conveyed by the proprietors on 
June 30, 1748, to Nathaniel Bonnel, a millwright of Eliza- 
beth.-" It is now the property of the Commonwealth Elec- 
tric Company, and is occupied in part by a power station. 

'Essex County Road Book, A.B. 34. 
'East Jersey Surveys, S 2, 279. 



CHAPTER II 

First Settlements in Morris County — Purchases of Indian Lands by 
the Pioneers — Purchases by the West Jersey Proprietors — 
Allotment of the Land — Proprietary Surveys in Chatham — 
John Budd an extensive Landowner — Settlement of Chatham — 
Counties and Townships instituted — Chatham formerly known 
by various Names — Its present Name adopted. 

ALTHOUGH the Indian deed and the NicoUs patent 
were so drawn as to include in the Elizabethtown pur- 
chase a large part of what is now Morris County, the 
associates do not appear to have ever laid claim to the lands 
lying beyond the Passaic River at the Minisink Crossing. 
That locality was occupied under proprietary grants. It was 
during the period when the Passaic formed in part the 
dividing line between East and West Jersey that the col- 
onists established the settlement from which the Borough 
of Chatham has developed. 

Much uncertainty exists concerning the date when the 
first settlers entered the territory now called Morris County. 
According to Barber & Howe's Historical Collections of 
New Jersey, a party of pioneers from Elizabeth, Newark, 
East Hampton, L. I., and New England, accompanied by 
a few Englishmen, established themselves upon or near the 
Whippany River as early as 1685, having been attracted 
by the inviting appearance of the country and the fertility 
of the soil, but especially by the rich deposits of iron ore 
in the Morris County hills. They and their descendants 
are said to have built so many forges in various places for 
the manufacture of iron, that the locality was known as 
"the Old Forges" for many years. Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle, 
in his History of the Madison Presbyterian Church, locates 



Settlement of Morris County 21 

one of these early forges on or near the site of the grist 
mill at Chatham bridge. 

But the assertion that the white men secured a footing 
in this region at so early a period is not corroborated by 
other historians. Rev. Jacob Green, in a historical sketch 
of the Presbyterian church of Hanover, written in 1767, 
and compiled largely from the parish records, gives the 
date of the first settlement in the county as 17 10. Dr. 
Joseph F. Tuttle, a former pastor of the Presbyterian 
church at Rockaway, who made an exhaustive study of the 
subject, discovered that the earliest record date is that of 
a conveyance of land "near a place called Whippenung," in 
May, 171 5 ; although he found traces of a settlement by five 
or six families in Pequannock Township, in the same county, 
as early as 1700.' 

The West Jersey proprietors, like those of the eastern 
division, strongly opposed individual purchases of land from 
the Indians, and at an early date caused laws to be passed 
restraining such conveyances. These laws were re-enacted 
after the surrender of the proprietary government to Queen 
Anne; and although occasional attempts were made to evade 
them, their existence rendered it impossible for the settlers 
to acquire a title which would be officially recognized until 
the proprietors had bought the land from the savages, and 
had surveyed it into small parcels to be placed upon the 
market. An Indian deed to an individual possessed no legal 
validity unless previously authorized or subsequently con- 
firmed by the authorities. 

There is reason to believe that in a few instances where 
land in this region was bought by the pioneers from the 
natives, the site of Chatham was included in the transaction; 
but it is impossible to locate with certainty the property con- 
veyed, for the descriptions in the Indian deeds were in- 

' Sherman's Historic Morristown, 5; N. J. Historical Society Proceed- 
ings, Ser. 2, II, 52. 



22 History of Chatham 

variably drawn in a most vague and careless manner. The 
points of the compass were not definitely stated, the various 
monuments referred to were in most cases merely posts, 
marked trees, or heaps of stones, and when streams or hills 
were mentioned they were often called by Indian words 
bearing no resemblance to their present names. It is doubt- 
ful if greater accuracy was possible, owing to the lack of 
exploration, or if it was considered necessary when the 
country was so sparsely settled. 

The most noted of these illegal conveyances was the 
New Britain purchase, the deed of which is preserved in the 
library of the New Jersey Historical Society. By this in- 
strument, which is dated August 13, 1708, a tract of land 
about 18 miles square, called by the Indians McKseta 
Cohiinge, and by the whites New Britain was conveyed by 
one Tapkaow and fifteen other sa\ages to Peter Fauconnier, 
May Bicklev, Ebenezer Wilson and Lancaster Symmes, all 
of the city of New York, and Nathaniel Bonnel of Elizabeth- 
town — a party of speculators who bought in anticipation of 
large gains to be realized from the sale of farm sites to the 
settlers. The boundary line of the property ran from a 
point near Lake Hopatcong southwestwardly about IQ miles 
to Peapack; thence due east 17 miles; thence due north 18 
miles through the Great Swamp, the Pissaiick and Wey- 
penunk Rivers, and along the east side of the latter stream : 
and thence due west about 14 miles to the point of beginning. 
It may be noted, as an e\ident inaccuracy of this description, 
that a course of 17 miles due east from Peapack would have 
continued the purchase across the Passaic River into Eliza- 
beth Township, though there is no reason to believe that 
such was the design of the contracting parties. It is iTiuch 
more probable that the tract was intended to adjoin, without 
overlapping, the territory of Elizabeth. There can be little 
doubt that the site of Chatham was included in this con- 
veyance. Fauconnier and his companions sold plots upon 



Proprietary Pl-rciiases 23 

the tract to some hall-dozen settlers, «ho, owing to the 
illegality of the original purdiase. had considerable difficulty 
msecunng from the proprietors a subsequent confirmation 
ot their titles: but none of these plantations was located in 
the immediate \-icinIty of Chatham. 

From an examination of the West Jersey records Nve 
learn that during the opening years of the iSth century steps 
were taken by the proprietary body to purchase and deyelop 
Indian lands in the northern part of the Proyince. Aroused 
by the kno\yledge that seyeral planters who claimed under 
deeds of the aborigines were settling in West Jersey the 
proprietors decided in the spring of 1709 to secuVe as'much 
land as the natiyes could be induced to sell; and large pur- 
chases were accordingly made in i 7 i 2 and i 7 13. the sayages 
conyeying practically, all the territory they had not already 
sold in the present counties of Morris, Sussex and Warren 
The speculation seems to ha^•e been ^-cry profitable, in yiew 
of the fact that the proprietors estimated the cost of the 
purchases at about six shillings per 100 acres, and fixed the 
price at which similar quantities of land should be sold to 
the settlers at £3s-' 

During the years 1714 and 171,- the property thus 
acquired ^yas suryeyed and diyided into lots or tracts in order 
that It might be justly and equally apportioned among the 
members ol the West Jersey ,.roprictarv who had joined in 
.ts purchase. The minutes of the board indicate that the 
allotment of the land was thus proyided for: 

Sep. 11th. 1714. A hill Council being met this dav in order 
to consider further of the method to be taken for dividing the la^t 
purchase from the Indians in the most equal .,nd impartial manner 
It .s agreed that the Division shall be in the following manner- 

1 hat the whole quantity subscribed for or to be subscribed and 
paid lor before the time hereinafter appointed for drawing Lots shall 
be divided into Lots of 1250 Acres each. 

'West Jersej- Proprietary Minutes, III, 43, 46. 



24 History of Chatham 

That the Lots shall be numbered 1, 2, 3, &c. until the full 
quantity subscribed for shall be made up. 

That such Props, as have less than 1250 Acres or thereabouts 
can join their rights with others to make up the quantity not ex- 
ceeding 100 Acres more or less. 

That the several Purchasers who have paid or who shall pay 
towards said purchase shall faithfully and impartially draw their Lots 
without any preference, and according to the order or succession of 
their numbers which they draw shall have warrants granted them 
and may proceed in the same order to have their lands surveyed in 
such places as they choose. 

That none shall be allowed to take up above 10 Acres of 
Meadow or rich lowland in each 100 Acres which they survey and 
not less than the quantity contained in their Lot shall be laid out 
in one Tract. 

That those who dislike their Lots when drawn may reject them 
and may take up Rights in any other part of W. Division or in said 
Purchase after all those that approve of their Lots and proceed to 
survey are surveyed. 

That the said Lots shall be drawn at Burlington the 28th. inst. 
and that "The Council" meet on the 27th. ^ 

The land now included in the corporate limits of the 
Borough of Chatham lay in three tracts, the drawing of 
which by certain of the proprietors marked the first convey- 
ance to individuals of land on the west side of the Passaic 
at and near the Minisink Crossing of which a definite and 
reliable record remains. The first tract, which is designated 
in the proprietary surveys as Lot No. 36, and which fell to 
the share of John Budd, embraced the northern part of 
Chatham; the second being a portion of Lot No. 44, sur- 
veyed to Abraham Chapman, included the Stanley section of 
the borough; and the third, which lay between them, and was 
conveyed to John Hayward, contained the site of the early 
settlement. The northeast corner of Chapman's lot, where 
it joined that of Hayward, touched the river at a point in 

" West Jersey Proprietary Minytes, III, 68. 



Proprietary Surveys 25 

the Stanley niillpond a short distance above the Watdumg 
Avenue bridge; and the boundaries of the three tracts have 
been worked out by reference to that point. 

Lot No. 26 was surveyed to John Budd on May 13, 
1715- It consisted of 1250 acres (less 87 which had been 
previously seated by Samuel Carter), having a frontage of 
over a mile on the river, and extending northwestwardly as 
far as East Madison; and, while its boundaries cannot be 
located with absolute precision, owing to the propensity of 
the early surveyors to select as their monuments nothing 
more permanent than trees and posts, we know that it in- 
cluded the territory now called lower Chatham and adjacent 
parts of the Borough of Florham Park.' 

Abraham Chapman's land, a portion of Lot No. 44, 
which lay much farther up the ri\er, was surveyed to him on 
August 23 of the same year. Its area was given as 833 
acres, though in point of fact it was much larger. Its 
boundary line began on the Passaic above the Watchung 
Avenue bridge, and ran northwestwardly, a little north of 
Willow Street, to a white oak corner tree standing about as 
far from the river as Division Avenue, although the corner 
uas some distance south of the southern extremity of that 
highway. Here the tract adjoined Lot No. 8, described as 
lying at the head of the Great Swamp, which had been pre- 
viously surveyed to William Penn. Turning at right angles, 
the line then ran 114 chains toward the southwest, along 
Penn's property, to a corner post; whence it returned by two 
courses to a point on the river perhaps half a mile above the 
New Providence bridge.^ Chapman sold this property to 
Wdliam Oldden (Gulden) of Piscataway."' 

The third lot— that of John Hayward— is the tract 
in which our interest centres, for it embraced the heart of 

' West Jersey Surveys, B, 37. 

"Ibid., A. 183. 

"New Jersey Archives, Scr. 1, XXIII. 345 



26 History of Chatham 

the early village. This land apparently was not included in 
the original surveys, but was a remnant left between the 
tracts adjoining. Concerning it the following entry occurs 
in the council minutes of the West Jersey board of pro- 
prietors under date of August 22, 1715: 

John Budd & Richard Bull request in behalf of Capt. Johnson 
.Lucars Young & Crane that they may have 



the liberty to purchase and lay a Right on 1250 Acres of land by 
the Minisink Path bersveen Govr. Penn's Lot at the "Head of the 
Great Swamp" and John Budd's Lot in one piece or else to take 
such smaller pieces of vacant lands between surveys already made 
to make up the same quantity, provided they transfer and deliver up 
& release the Deed of Indian Purchase of the Lands of Whippany 
commonly called "Earl's Purchase." Ordered that lands be appro- 
priated to them when Rights appear to be made them and they re- 
lease &c. as above said.' 

In compliance with this order, it is believed. 1600 acres 
or thereabouts were surveyed to John Hayward on May 
22, 1 7 16. The conveyance included three plots, of which 
the first is the object of our inquiry. It consisted nominally 
of 870 acres, and bordered upon the Passaic between the 
tracts of Chapman and Budd; having a river frontage of 
more than a mile, and extending northwestward into the 
present Borough of Madison. Its northern boundary 
touched the Passaic near the mouth of the mill-race below 
Main Street bridge. It was bisected by the Minisink Path, 
now represented by Main Street and King's Road.-' 

In the course of the allotment of lands among the West 
Jersey proprietors, and by subsequent purchases, John Budd, 
a merchant of Philadelphia, who at the time was one of the 
most wealthy and influential members of the board, became 
the individual owner of several tracts in various localities, 

'West Jersey Proprietary Minutes, III, l + I. 
"West Jersey Surveys, B, 49. 



The Budd Papers 27 

aggregating fully 15,000 acres, most of which hiy in what is 
now Morris County. P^or some reason, now unknown, he did 
not always take in his own name the land allotted to him : 
we find in the records occasional mention of lots surveyed to 
other persons "in right of John Budd." 7"his procedure was 
adopted in the case of Hayward's property at Chatham, 
which seems to have belonged to Mr. Budd though surveyed 
to another. John Hayward was one of the early settlers, a 
carpenter by trade, who li\ed in Xewark at the time of this 
purchase, but became a resident of Whippany as early as 
17 17.' I he records do not show that he ever lived upon or 
sold the tract where Chatham now lies; and as Mr. Budd 
seems to have regarded the land as his own, and to have 
disposed of it to the settlers at his pleasure, the inference is 
that Mr. Hayward appeared in the transaction merely as his 
representative. 

A large collection of business papers of John Budd 
relating to his real estate was formerly possessed by one of 
his descendants, Frank M. Budd, of Chatham, but was un- 
fortunately destroyed in the burning of the hitter's residence 
in 1884. The collection included an immense number of 
memoranda, letters, accounts, land warrants, surveys, maps, 
deeds, powers of attorney, cancelled mortgages, assign- 
ments, leases, etc., dealing with lands in many parts of West 
Jersey and Pennsylvania, chiefly in the neighborhood of 
Whippany, and contained much \aluable data respecting the 
settlement of Chatham. Among others were two undated 
maps, thought to ha\e been drawn in June, 1748, which 
together co\ered the Hayward tract, giving the names of the 
settlers and the location of their plantations. Neither these 
maps nor any of the other papers indicated the date when 
the Hayward property was di\ided and sold, but there is 
reason to believe that the earliest sales were not made prior 
to I 720 or 172^. 

'Budd Papers, Package 21, Nos. 12, 13. 



2 8 History of Chatham 

We have seen that the conveyance of Lot No. 36 to 
John Budd in 1715 excepted a plantation of 87 acres pre- 
viously seated by Samuel Carter, who thus appears to have 
been the first settler on the west side of the Passaic where 
Chatham now lies. No record has been found showing the 
location of his farm; but as he was one of the first pur- 
chasers of land in the Hayward tract, where his holdings lay 
on the north side of Main Street and King's Road,^ extend- 
ing from Passaic Avenue to Black Brook (now called Day's 
Brook), it is reasonable to suppose that the plantation which 
he had previously seated in Lot No. 36 adjoined this 
property on the north. 

Mention should also be made of John Day, the pioneer 
who gave his name to the settlement. John and Daniel Day, 
former residents of Long Island,- were the first to locate 
near the river in the Hayward tract. The time of their pur- 
chase is not known; but as a reference to Daniel was found 
in the Budd papers under date of 1728, it is assumed that 
that year, or the year preceding, marked their arrival in this 
region. From one of the maps above referred to, and from 
some of the other papers of John Budd, it was ascertained 
that John Day owned a farm of approximately 100 acres 
lying on both sides of Main Street, having a frontage 
on the river of some 3,000 feet, which ran down the 
stream from a point a short distance below the upper 
dam of the Chatham grist mill, and extending toward 
the west to a small brook which crosses Main Street near 
the corner of Minton Avenue. His residence stood on the 
south side of the former street a few rods west of the 

' Main Street and King's Road are mentioned together in this connec- 
tion because the colonial highway is represented by the former from the 
river to the corner of Washington Avenue, and by the latter from the corner 
of Lafayette Avenue to Madison. Between Washington and Lafayette 
Avenues its line has been obliterated. The section of Main Street west of 
Washington Avenue was not opened until a much later date. 

"Lewis Publishing Company's Morris County, I, 282. 



f"i 



v>-- 




MAP OF CHATHAM, EASTERN SECTION. 
From the Budd Papers. 



iSt^JUi^ '-•ii a. 



J*—/.-,* 



2Ta.*rV«> >VV 



j).»>C.^ 










JV/ w- — «J- -J 



^^^.Z- 






CZ^.W' J^Lm^JLt \~^4 ^ 






-2 



yc. ^ *-K-.»v*fctf 



MAP OF CHATHAM, WESTERN SECTION. 
From the Budd Papers. 



The First Settlers 



29 



river. Adjoining this farm on the south and west was the 
plantation of Daniel Day, about 150 acres in extent, which 
was divided by Main Street into two unequal portions. South 
of the road it stretched up the river from John Day's upper 
corner to the approximate line of Raymond Street, with 
Its western boundary near Fuller Avenue. On the north 
side of Main Street it extended from John Day's line 
as far west as Passaic Avenue, where it adjoined the Carter 
property mentioned above; and although the course of the 
latter street does not correspond exactly with Daniel Day's 
boundary, there is little doubt that it was originally a lane 
separating these ancient farms. The holdings of both John 
and Daniel Day were not confined on the north by the side 
line of the Hayward tract, but extended irregularly a few 
rods into Lot No. 36. 

The road now known as Main Street was laid out soon 
after the founding of the settlement, the bridge being con- 
structed on John Day's property about four rods above the 
Minisink Crossing. The name of John Day's Bridge was 
given to this structure, and later to the settlement itself. 
The bridge was probably so called because of the proximity 
of Mr. Day's residence, although the name may indicate that 
it was built by him to facilitate the transportation of his 
farm- and garden-produce to Elizabeth and Newark. 

The first mill in this locality was built by William 
Broadwell, who, on May 31, 1737, bought of John Budd a 
plot of 27 acres in the southeast corner of the Hayward 
tract, extending along the river from the Stanley millpond 
to the point where the stream approaches the rail- 
road. The map found among the Budd papers, which 
was thought to have been drawn in 1748, showed that the 
mill had been erected prior to that time, the dam being on or 
near the boundary between the tracts of Hayward and 
Chapman; in which vicinity a dam has been maintained until 
modern times. 



30 History of Chatham 

Regarding the sales to the early settlers of plantations 
in Lot No. 36, definite information is not obtainable. From 
the Budd papers it appeared that on December 11, 1730, 
Samuel Lum, a weaver of Elizabeth, purchased of John 
Budd for £95 a parcel of land known as Stephen's Neck (a 
name applied to the east end of Lot No. 36), extending 
from the river to Black Brook. It was described in the 
deed as "bounded Southward and Westward by land 
said Budd sold to John Day, Danl Day and Samuel 
Carter, and Eastward by Passayck River, and westward by 
Black Brook, exclusive of said Brook, and Meadow sold 
John and Danl Day & Joseph Jump, and Saml Carter 
as per their Deeds. "^ The holdings of John and Daniel Day 
and Samuel Carter which adjoined this property on the south 
were the plantations they had bought in the Hayward tract; 
and the deed to Mr. Lum indicates that the Days and Joseph 
Jump had bought lots lying west of Black Brook in Lot No. 
36." The location of these farms, however, cannot be ascer- 
tained. 

'Package 20. The deed was witnessed before Joseph Bonnell, judge of 
the Essex County Court of Common Pleas, June 19, 1737. 

"Joseph Jump at one time owned a plot of 50 acres on the south side 
of Main Street between Fairmount and Lafayette Avenues. Following is 
a memorandum of his deed found among the Budd papers. 

Package 19, No. 2, May 10, 1728. John Budd of Hannover for f25 
Deeds Jos. Jump, late of New England, now of Hannover, 50 .^cres opposite 
Saml. Carter & 8 Acres on Passaick River in the Neck, being same as was 
surveyed for John & Jos. Carter, with 2 .^cres which was surveyed for 
Danl. Day. 

The lot on Main Street was acquired by John Carter, who disposed of 
it as follows; 

Package 17, No. 16. Sept. 17, 1729. John Carter of Hannover Deeds 
Nathl. Cogswell of said Town, Blacksmith, for iiO, 55 Acres in Hannover, 
50 Acres lying on S. side of King's Highway to E. Town. Beginning at 
Post by a small Run 4 Pearches up the Run from Saml. Carter's lands, 
thence by S. side Highway, S. 41° E., 28 Pearches; thence S. 68° E., 100 
Pearches by said Road; thence S. 22° W. 60 Pearches; thence N. 68° W., 
80 Pearches; thence S. 22° W., 20 Pearches; thence N. 68° W., to aforesaid 
Run of Water & down same to beginning. Also 5 Acres on N. side said 
Road. Witnessed by Ephm. Sayre. 

Package 17, No. 17. 1732. Cogswell Deeds Peter Vantilburg 30 Acres 
on S. side & 5 on N. side of above land. 

Package 20, No. 15. 1735. Vantilburg Deeds to Benj. Parkhurst the 
said 35 Acres. 




JOHN J. KCNT, C C. 



JOHN- BUDD S MAP OF KARLY PLANTATIONS 
Drawn Over a Modern .\rap cif Chatham. 



The First Settlkrs ^j 

Three years later Samuel Lum' bought the Carter 
property m the Hayward tract-a farm of loo acres- 
wh.ch, as already stated, butted on the north side of Main 
Street and King's Road from Passaic Avenue to Black 
Hrook. Mr. Carter had previously sold this propertv to 
Joseph Lyon of Newark, who, on February 19, ,7,, con 
veyed it to Mr Lum for £52. This deed was also^'ound' 
among the Budd papers.^ As a result of these purchases 
Samuel Lum s holdings extended from the Passaic in lower 
Chatham and Florham Park to Main Street. 

The present homestead farm of the Budd family on 
Passaic Avenue is located in Lot No. 36-presumably in the 
section known in colonial days as Stephen's Neck-and 

Th'e''?nTl '^- ^°- '^- "f''; P^'"^'""-^' I^e«Is the same to John Budd. 
i, „7'';.f?""^V"g ^""'ey, wlule not connected with the history of Chatham 

h.en fi'" """■"' '° "'■■""' '"' '"^""■"" ^"^' ^^ it i^ beHeved to ha^ e' 

It wa mad ZT \ 'h '""" ^""" '" ""' P''' °^ Morris Co n tv 
iVnld bv htm and ,w ""T'"' '^"'y°'^' °f Elizabeth.own, but not 
sigr^ed b> him and not recotded among the West Jersey surveys It was 
declared irregular and the land was resuryeyed under West Jerey rights 
Budd Papers, Package 21. .\'o. 7. At Whipeny. Laid out for fohn 
Cramer Begnnnng at a White Oak stake in a large meadow henc^e S l" 

ttnce st6"'F' tr t ■'' \' '\ ^''^'"^' "'^ -^- '^^ E- \^^chl\nl, 
thence b. 66 E., 61'_, chains to the place it first began. April ye 14th da.^ 

Memorandum. 800 Acres suryeyed to J. Cramer. 
78 was due him. 



33 ret'd to S. Potter Jaiiy. 14, 1717/18. 

689 

150 P. Keighley. 

539 
40 to Potter 



papei's 



499 To Ford & Hayward. 
Memorandum of Samuel Lum's second deed found among the Budd 



R.yer; thence on said Highway 8., 40° E. 7 chains; thencf oT'same S 68^ 

thence '8%" 'wT6 ''h ■' ^- '^"^ ^^^^^ whence N. 53= W., 26 chain ; 

00 Acres ' " '° ^^"^ ^'°°^' '^'"" °" ^'"'•^ '° beginning: 



32 History of Chatham 

formed part of the plantation sold by John Budd to Samuel 
Lum. Dr. John C. Budd, a grandson of the proprietor, 
came into possession of the property by his marriage to 
Miss Mary Lum; and the presence of Samuel Lum's deeds 
among the Budd papers is explained by this marriage. 

During the closing years of the 17th century, when the 
partition line of the provinces followed the Passaic River for 
part of its distance, and the site of Chatham was conse- 
quently in the western colony, the division of West Jersey 
into counties and townships was commenced. The earliest 
counties were Gloucester in the south, formed in 1677, and 
Burlington in the north, dating from 1694. The limits of 
the latter as originally laid out being quite indefinite, an 
attempt to legally determine them was made in 17 10; and 
although the language of the statute was not wholly free 
from uncertainty, its intention was that Burlington County 
should completely cover the northern half of the Province. 

In 1 7 13-14, upon petition of the settlers inhabiting the 
northern parts of West Jersey, who objected to traveling so 
far to attend sessions of the county court, a large section of 
Burlington was set off and erected into a separate county 
called Hunterdon, which was bounded on the south by 
Assunpink Creek (a tributary of the Delaware at Trenton), 
and embraced the entire territory of the Province to the 
northward. The gradual increase of population led to 
further recognition of the needs and convenience of the in- 
habitants by the erection of Morris County, which was 
carved out of Hunterdon in 1738-9. The new bailiwick con- 
tained not only its present area, but also that of the more 
recent counties of Sussex and ^Varren. It was named in 
honor of Governor Lewis Morris, during whose administra- 
tion it was formed. 

One of the first townships created in the upper portion 
of West Jersey was called Whippenong. It lay to the north- 
ward and eastward, including the region where Chatham is 



Early Townships 33 

situated, and is said to have been laid out about 1700. Its 
name was changed to Hanover probably about 1721. 
References to Hanover Township occur as early as 1722 in 
Volume II. of the Hunterdon County court minutes; but the 
first volume, which doubtless recorded the formation of the 
township and its subsequent change of name, is missing, and 
a diligent search in 1879 failed to bring it to light. 

The Morris County Court of General Sessions con- 
vened at Morristown, for the first time it is believed, on 
March 25, 1740; and proceeded as its initial step to divide 
the county into three townships to be known as Pequonnock, 
Hanover and Morris. By this action the former township 
of Hanover was greatly reduced in size. Pequonnock lay in 
^the extreme north and east, between the Pequonnock and 
"Rockaway Rivers, and the other two embraced the re- 
mainder of the county, being separated by the road which 
ran through the centre of Chatham. The dividing line was 
thus laid out: 

And that a Certain road from the Bridge by John Days up to 
the Place where the Same road passes between Benjamin and Abra- 
ham Persons and thence up the Same road to the Corner of Samuel 
Fords fence, thence Leaving Samuel Ford to the right hand thence 
running up to the road that leads from the Old Iron Works toward 
Succasunning Crossing Whippenung Bridge and from thence to Suc- 
casunn.ng, & from thence to the great Pond on the head of Mus- 
conecong, do part the Township of Hanover from the Township of 
Morris, which part of the County of Morris Lying as afd to the 
Southward and Westward of Said Roads, lines & places is Ordered 
by the Court to be and remain a Township, District or Precinct 
& to be Called & Distinguished by the name of Morris Town.^ 

The fact that the village of Chatham on the west side 
of the Passaic was divided between the townships of Han- 
over and Morris, accounts for its representation by the 

'Morris County Oyer and Terminer Minutes I. I. 



34 History of Chatham 

committee of observation of each of these districts during 
the early days of the Revolution. 

With the increase in population incident to the opening 
up of a new country, the settlement afterwards known as 
Chatham continued steadily to grow; and as we approach 
the Revolutionary period we find it a flourishing village, 
having its nucleus at the bridge, extending perhaps three- 
quarters of a mile in each direction along the highroad, with 
scattered dwellings up and down the river, and containing 
stores, taverns, grist-, saw- and fulling-mills, blacksmiths' 
shops and other local industries. The settlement, however, 
lacked a definite and distinctive name. It was originally 
known both as John Day's Bridge, and as the Minisink 
Crossing, although the latter appellation probably referred 
to the ford of the Passaic more particularly than to the 
village itself; but during the late colonial period these names 
appear to have fallen into disuse, the settlement being some- 
what vaguely denominated "On Passaic River." An early 
mention of the hamlet thus designated is found in the diary 
of Captain John Wontresor, who noted therein the expenses 
of a journey from Philadelphia to New York at the time of 
the erection of the fort on Mud Island in the Delaware 
River, probably in the latter part of April, 1 77 1 . He wrote : 

Expenses for Self, Servant & horses on ye road. Ferriages — 
from Phila. to New York for one chais and horse for self and 1 
Horse for Servant. 

Neshaming One Shilling, one penny Pennsylva. 

Trent Town 3 do. one do. do. 

Brunswick 1 do. Eleven do. 

P'Saick 24 coppers 

Hackinsack 2 Shilling & 8 coppers 

Powles-hook 6 do. & 1 copper 

Boats Crew white oak Barge. . . 1 guinea 

do. of one of the Island . 1 do. 

Expenses from Phila. to Boston and return — Twice. ^ 

'New York Historical Society Collections, XLV, 416. 



The Name Chatham Adopted 35 

The stopping-place which he calls "P'Saick" was doubt- 
less the settlement which in time became the village of 
Chatham. The present city of Passaic was then Acquack- 
anonck. 

In the A^... York Gazette of July 26, 1773, Stephen 
Ball advertised for sale his residence &c. at Passaic River 
on the mam road from Morris Town to Elizabeth Town' 
the property being 12 miles from Elizabeth Town, 13 from 
Newark, a gun shot from a saw 
mill, grist mill, and market, and 
within one and three quarter 
miles of South Hanover Meeting, 
by which he meant what is now 
known as the Madison Presby- 
terian church. He added that as 
he intended to move to the Mis- 
sissippi in the early fall, he would 
sell very cheap. 

When communication with 
the cities became more frequent, 
the term "On Passaic River" was 
found to be too indefinite; and the settlers decided that their 
town had attained a size and importance which entitled it to 
a more distinctive name. Accordingly, on the 19th of No- 
vember, 1 773, at a meeting held for the purpose, they agreed 
to call ,t Chatham, in honor of Sir William Pitt, Earl of 
Chatham, who had won the gratitude and esteem of the 
colonists by his parliamentary activities in their behalf when 
their rights and interests were menaced by the oppressive 
policy of the government. Public notice of this important 
step was given by advertisement inserted in the Nezv York 
Gazette of December 6, 13 and 20, 1773, which read as 
follows : 

TO THE PUBLIC. 

Whereas the inhabitants of a certain village, situate at Passaik- 




Coluiiiiil Tankard 



36 



History of Chatham 



River, on the main road that leads from Elizabeth-Town to Morris- 
Town, found themselves under a considerable disadvantage from the 
place's not having a particular name, as the river runs through the 
country 40 or 50 miles, and letters directed to persons at Passaik 
River only, would be sometimes carried above and sometimes below 
them ; upon which the principal freeholders and inhabitants assembled 
together on Friday, the 19th. inst, and unanimously agreed to 
call it Chatham ; and all persons that should hereafter direct letters, 
or anything else to any person living at or near the above place, are 
desired to direct at Chatham, on Passaik River.' 

' This advertisement also appeared in The Nnu York Journal or General 
.Advertiser of November 23, 1773. 




CHAPTER III 

Commencement of the Revolution— Committees of Safety— Re- 
pression of Toryism— The Liberty Pole— Military Organiza- 
tions—Chatham a Militia Station— The Bridge Carefully 
Guarded. 

BUT little can now be learned of the part taken by the 
citizens of Chatham in the series of events which led to 
the severance of allegiance to the British crown ; but we know 
that, as an initial step, they joined the people of the neigh- 
boring villages in the formation of committees of observa- 
tion, and committees of correspondence. These committees 
were organized by the people, without official authoriza- 
tion, in the counties and townships of the Province, and were 
composed of the most influential men in each community. 
They were originally designed simply to voice public opinion; 
and to this end they passed resolutions, in the early days of 
their existence, consisting of protests against the oppressive 
acts of the government, accompanied by declarations of 
loyalty to the king; but in some instances (as in the case of 
the Committee of Morris County) they were vested by the 
people with legislative powers, subject to the control of the 
Provincial Congress; and after independence was declared 
they became the recognized head of the local government. 
Captain Stephen Day, of Chatham, was a member of the 
Committee of Hanover Township, representing that part of 
the village which lay west of the river and north of Main 
Street.' 

When war with the mother country was found to be 

'Lee-s New Jersey as Colony and State, II, 47; Minutes of the New 
Jersey Provincial Congress and Council of Safety, II, 52; Sherman's His- 
toric Morristown, 161. 



38 History of Chatham 

inevitable, the people of Chatham embraced the cause of 
liberty with fervor and enthusiasm. There were doubtless a 
few persons in the community who remained loyal to the 
crown, but their number seems to have been insignificant; 
and, in fact, it is highly probable that those who were not in 
sympathy with the popular excitement soon found it prudent 
to make no mention of their views; for at an early period of 
the Revolution laws were enacted for the restraint of dis- 
affected persons, the severity of which legislation increased 
as time went on, until at length toryism was punished by 
banishment from the State and forfeiture of lands and 
goods. After the close of the war the newspapers of New 
Jersey published an occasional advertisement announcing the 
sale of the property of some turbulent royalist, who, owing 
to his disloyal utterances, or his activities in the interests of 
the British, had been adjudged an enemy of his country, 
whose lands were declared forfeited to the State. One of 
these advertisements, published November 15, 1786, in the 
Nezv Jersey Journal of Elizabeth, is quoted in illustration: 

CONFISCATED ESTATES in the County of Essex, to be 
sold at public vendue. 

Also all the property of William Wright, of, in and to a cer- 
tain piece of land within the bounds of Elizabeth Town, at a place 
called Chatham, which land was formerly sold by Matthias Winans 
to William Wright by a deed bearing date the 20th day of October, 
1776, and now forfeited to the state by William Wright. 

Samuel Haves^ 
Agent for Essex County.* 

' In the Neiv York Gazette and ll'eekly Mercury of September 28. 1776, 
Ezekeal Ball of Newark Farms (now Hilton) offers a reward of $2 for 
the return of a heifer and caif strayed from the pasture of Matthias Wynants 
of Chatham; the reward to be paid by himself or by Mr. Wynants or by 
Dr. Ball at Chatham. This pasture was doubtless part of the farm re- 
ferred to in the text. William Wright had tried to dispose of his property 
during the Revolution, but apparently without success. In the Ne-ir Jersey 
Gazette of August 5, 1778, he advertises for sale a plantation of 81 acres 
at Chatham, Essex County; there being 50 acres of English meadow, 8 acres 
of plow land, and the rest wood land. 



Restraint of Toryism 39 

Dr. James Thatcher, in his Military Journal, describes 
in the following words the treatment meted out to those who 
refused to support the cause of the colonies at that time of 
intense feeling and excitement. His statement has reference 
to an entirely different part of the country, but the conditions 
which existed in this vicinity were precisely similar. 

The man who does not acquiesce in the theme of libertj' is 
marked by the vigilant eye of suspicion, or stigmatized as an enemy 
to his countrj-. Liberty poles are erected in almost every town and 
village; and when a disaffected tory renders himself odious by any 
active conduct, with a view of counteracting the public measures, he 
IS seized by a company of armed men, and conducted to the liberty 
pole, under which he is compelled to sign a recantation, and give 
bonds for his future good conduct. In some instances, of particular 
stubbornness and obstinacy, individuals have been imprisoned, or 
their names have been published in the newspapers as enemies to their 
country. It has indeed unfortunately happened, that a few indi- 
viduals, in consequence of their own indiscretion, have been the sub- 
jects of a more rigorous procedure. Having fallen into the hands 
of those whose zeal has transported them beyond the bounds of 
moderation, they have received from the rabble a coat of tar and 
feathers, and in this predicament have been exposed to the scofifs 
and ridicule of the populace. Such examples have the effect of strik- 
ing terror into the hearts of all the disaffected, and of restraining the 
whole part>' from acting against the general sense of the people. 

A prominent tory of Morris County whose name has 
come down to us was Thomas Eckley, an English 
gentleman who had purchased the homestead farm of 
Peter Smith on the road from Hanover to Florham Park. 
Mr. Eckley was one of the leading citizens of Hanover in 
colonial days, and had served the community as a lay judge 
of the county courts.' He is described as "a man of con- 
siderable property and not a little hauteur";- and ht 



le was 



' Munsell's Morris County (IS 
'Jones's Ashbel Green, 33. 



40 History of Chatham 

most strongly and bitterly opposed to the rupture with the 
mother country. So freely and aggressively did he express 
his opinions that his neighbors became greatly incensed, and 
they discussed the advisability of taking drastic action 
against him. A rumor of the threatened movement having 
reached EHzabeth, Elias Boudinot of that place, a member 
of the Essex County Committee of Correspondence, hastily 
dispatched a letter to the corresponding committee of Mor- 
ris County, protesting against such step. A draft of this 
letter has been found among Boudinot's papers, and is given 
below. It bears no signature, but is icnown to be in his hand- 
writing. 

Gentl. 

We have been much surprised, by an information just received 
from a Mr. Morrell of Chatham given to his Brother of this Town, 
that there is a determination of a considerable number of your 
County, to raise a Liberty Pole at Chatham to morrow and from 
thence they are to proceed to Mr. Thomas Eckley, where it is sup- 
posed they intend to offer Violence to his Person on account of some 
imprudent Expressions said to be inimical to the Liberties of this 
Country; and that this determination is in Consequence of an Ex- 
ample said to be set by our own People here, with regard to Dr. 
Chandler. 

Deeply impressed therefore with a sense of the unhappy Conse- 
quences that must necessarily attend a Proceeding of this kind with 
regard to our Comon Cause, we are at the Trouble and Expense 
of an Express to you on this occasion, beseeching you immediately to 
exert yourselves to prevent a Measure that if adopted by the friends 
of Liberty will be such a Stain to our Characters as Men & Chris- 
tians, that it may in the End deter every good Man from joining 
with us. It is our honor that while we are engaged in so glorious 
a Struggle for what is more dear to us than Life, that even our very 
Enemies in the midst of us enjoy that Peace & Liberty which we so 
ardently wish for ourselves. 

As to the Precedent alledged to be drawn from our Example 
respecting Dr. Chandler, nothing can be more untrue. The fact 



Restraint of Toryism 41 

stands thus, a Number of Men from a small distance from the 
Town having been under Arms all day towards Evening some of them 
became rather mtoxicated with Liquor and being urged bv a Person 
who was mcapable of the exercise of his reason, (and we' are afraid 
m order to answer some private design) marched away suddenly to 
Dr. Chandlers House, without the least suspicion of the Committee 
as to their design. They were immediately followed by the Com- 
mittee who arrived time enough to send them back before thev 
entered the Doctor's Yard, by which means all violence was prevented 
And we are unanimous in discountenancing every Act of Violence to 
the Person or Property of any man whatever a* a Measure eventually 
necessary to our union & Success and directly contrary to your & 
our resolutions, and as there is no opposition to our publick Meas- 
ures either with you or us we cannot think that Liberty Pole Meet- 
mgs can be necessary or any way serve the comon cause and if the 
People will undertake & carry on every or any publick Measure with- 
out the advice of the Committee chosen by themselves it will be im- 
possible to perfect any Plan for the general good. 

These are our Sentiments wrote in a great hurry, which we 
communicate to you as Brethren, from the earnest desire we have to 

oTlTrt' "t"''r f '^"'"""' •^"'^ ^^'^"'« '^■"-^' '^" ^he friends 
ot J liberty in this Colony. 

Sunday Evening Aprile 30 1775. 

To Committee of Morris County. 

A uJ^^n °"''°'"' °^ '^'' occurrence is thus described by Dr 
Ashbel Green, a son of Rev. Jacob Green, the Revolutionary 
pastor of Hanover church: ■ 

Before long, this Englishman became so publicly audacious thu 
some young and ardent Whigs, in a neighbouring town, were reported 
to have declared that they would tar and feather him. This report 

Tu^of h s'V;"^ H ' ''''"^'^^- ^^^"■"^- '^"'^ '^ ^^'^'^^'^^^ '^^ ^ 
morning nh ""' '°."-^' ''^'" °" '^' ^"^'""-'"^ Sabbath 

Tha h L "■"'"' '"'"'^'''°" iruasinMe. He acknowledged 
that he had done wrong in speaking against the American cause, said 

omi" ' y" r*"""'^"" '"' ^■*°''-""' -'I -- willing to 
promise, most explicitly and solemnly, that if he might be forgiven 



42 History of Chatham 

and be permitted to live in peace and safety, he would be silent on 
the American controversy in future; and would, in all respects, de- 
port himself inoffensively. Such was the substance of his communi- 
cation, for I pretend not to give his words. He entreated my father 
to write down this humiliating statement, and read it publicly from 
the pulpit that morning; and he promised to attend, and stand up 
in the face of the congregation, and own the whole as his own 
voluntarj' act and deed. My father, I believe, had not heard a word 
about the tarring and feathering of his alarmed visitant, till he 
heard it from himself ; and was rather disposed to dissuade him from 
a public confession, although he had witnessed his imprudence, and 
did not know but he might be in danger of what he so greatly feared. 
As the tor)^ insisted upon making a public confession and retraction, 
my father told him to write it. This he was not well able to do, 
and urged my father to write it for him ; which was accordingly 
done, in strict conformity with his dictation. Agreeably to his 
promise, he appeared in the church, and rose up in his pew before 
the congregation, when my father began to read his paper, and at 
the close of the reading, he assented distinctly to its contents, as con- 
taining his voluntary confession and promise. I was present, and 
saw and heard what I now write. But the matter did not end here. 
The alarmed and anxious tory took the paper which my father had 
read, and hurried to the town from which the threatening had come, 
that he might have done there, in the afternoon service, what had 
already been done in the morning, in the place of his residence. But 
the minister of the town assured him, that what he had heard had 
been greatly magnified, and that nothing had taken place in that 
town to render necessary any such public transaction as he had 
solicited, and he refused to read the paper. Whether what was done 
in my father's church really saved him from tar and feathers, or 
whether his own fears had precipitated him into an unnecessary act, 
I know not. But I know that he lived many years on his farm in 
my father's neighbourhood, without any disturbance, and died there a 

considerable time after the close of our revolutionary war 

And I know, that although my father played him no trick in the 
matter of his public confession, yet when he found he was in no 



The Liberty Pole .^ 

danger, he seemed to suspect it, and treated m^• father with ereiter 
distance after, than before that occurrence.' 

The above incident is mentioned by Rev. Dr Joseph F 
Tuttle, who adds that the proposed act of violence emanated 
from some "hot bloods" of Morristown, and that the clergy- 
man who was requested by Eckley to read the confession in 
the afternoon service was Rev. Timothy Johnes of that 
placer but Dr. Tuttle gives no authority for this statement, 
and m the l.ght of Mr. Boudinot's letter, indicating that the 
threatenmgs proceeded from Chatham, it seems more likely 
that the application was made to Rev. Azariah Horton 
pastor of the Presbyterian church of Madison. There being 
no church edifice in Chatham at that time, this village was 
mcluded m the Madison parish. 

Whether the liberty-pole referred to by Mr. Boudinot 
was raised at that time or at a later date, is a question which 
unfortunately cannot be answered. We know that there was 
such a pole in Chatham during the Revolution, for it is men- 
tioned more than once in a local newspaper of the period 
the New Jersey Journal; but the time of its erection and re- 
moval cannot be ascertained. We are able to fix its location 
however, with some degree of accuracy. In the Journal of 
April 13, 1779, the executors of Mrs. Eunice Horton ad- 
vertised the sale of part of her effects "opposite the Liberty- 
Pole." From Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle's History of the Madi- 
son Presbyterian Church it appears that Mrs. Horton lived 
and died on the property adjoining on the east the former 
Presbyterian parsonage in Chatham ; and from other sources 
we learn that the former parsonage is now the residence of 
Frederick S. Tallmadge of East Main Street. As the articles 
advertised for sale consisted of personal effects and house- 
hold goods, there is scarcely room for doubt that the vendue 

'Jones's Ashbel Green, 34-36. 

= Annals of Morris County, 45; Harper's Magazine, XVIII, 292. 



44 History of Chatham 

was held in Mrs. Horton's house, in front of which, as is 
inferred from the advertisement, the liberty-pole stood. It 
may have been raised in the road; but if placed upon private 
property, its site is the land now owned by Clark C. Cyphers, 
on the north side of Main Street about twenty-five rods west 
of the river. 

The Revolutionary citizens of Chatham did not confine 
their activities in the cause of freedom to the raising of a 
liberty-pole and the disciplining of tories: they proved their 
patriotism in a more conclusive and practical way by enlist- 
ing, and rendering valiant service in the army; some of them 
joining the Continental troops, and many others enrolling 
themselves in the militia. These were the two chief branches 
into which the military of New Jersey was divided in Revo- 
lutionary days: the Continental troops corresponding to the 
regular army of modern times, and the militia being a force 
designed more especially for home defense, whose members, 
as originally planned, were to confine their operations to 
their own State, although circumstances occasionally arose 
which necessitated their presence beyond its borders. Besides 
these there were bodies called the State troops, and the 
minute men; but both of the latter organizations were com- 
posed of soldiers drawn from the militia. 

The Continental troops originated in October, 1775, 
when Congress recommended the Province of New Jersey 
to recruit men "at the expense of the Continent" for the 
national army; the call being for two battalions of eight com- 
panies each, a company to consist of 68 privates. One 
battalion was raised in each of the two divisions of the 
Province, and they were therefore distinguished as the First, 
or Eastern, and the Second, or Western; their respective 
colonels being Lord Stirling and William Maxwell. During 
the following June a third battalion was organized, having 
eight companies of 78 privates each, and commanded by 
Colonel Elias Dayton. The first and second battalions were 



Military Organizations 45 

discharged in the autumn of 1776, and the third in the fol- 
lowing spring. 

■ The troops raised in response to this call of Congress 
constituted what was officially termed the "first establish- 
ment," the contingent of this State being designated as the 
First, Second and Third Battalions, First Establishment. 
New Jersey Continental Line. 

The second establishment was formed in the autumn 
of 1776, the Continental Congress calling for 88 battalions 
to be raised in the several States, of which New Jersey's 
quota was 4. Their commanders were commissioned by 
Congress, and those of the Xew Jersey battalions were 
Colonels Sdas Newcomb, Israel Shreve, Elias Dayton and 
Ephraim Martin. These four battalions constituted what is 
known in history as the Jersey Brigade. WilHam Maxwell 
who had been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general' 
commanded the brigade until July, 1780, when he resigned,' 
and Colonel Dayton succeeded him. 

About the time that men were recruiting under the 
second call of Congress, Colonel Oliver Spencer, of the 
New Jersey mihtia, raised a battalion of approximately 150 
troops for the Continental service. As the second establish- 
ment consisted of four battalions, Spencer's is sometimes 
referred to as the Fifth. 

The third and last establishment of the New Jersey 
Continental line was organized in the spring of 1779, and 
consisted of three regiments commanded respectively bv 
Colonels Matthias Ogden, Israel Shreve and Elias Dayton 
Many recruits for these regiments were obtained from the 
militia, and among those taken from the Eastern Battalion 
of Morris County we find the names of some residents of 
Chatham, namely: Gilbert Bonnel, Eb. McDonald and 
James Richardson of Captain Carter's company, and Phihp 
Lunney and Wright Reading of Captain Ward's company. 
The mihtia antedated the Continental army. Bodies 



46 History of Chatham 

of citizen-soldiery existed in the Province during the late 
colonial period, but upon the outbreak of the Revolution 
this arm of service was greatly enlarged, and put upon a 
much more effective basis, recruits being eagerly sought for, 
and new companies and regiments raised. In June, 1775, 
the Provincial Congress enacted that, "for the purpose of 
defending American freedom," one or more companies of 
militia, each consisting of 80 men from 16 to 50 years of 
age, should be raised In every township or corporation; 
allotting a certain number of regiments or battalions to each 
county. Essex County was to furnish two regiments, with 
the privilege of forming them into four battalions, and 
Morris County one regiment or two battalions. Two bat- 
talions were accordingly organized in Morris County, dis- 
tinguished as the "Eastern" and "Western," in the first of 
which several Chatham men were enrolled. 

Each soldier was required to provide himself with a 
musket or fire-lock and bayonet, a sword or tomahawk, a 
steel ramrod, worm, priming-wire and brush, a cartouche- 
box to contain 23 rounds of cartridges, 12 flints and a knap- 
sack; and to keep In his house one pound of powder and 
three pounds of bullets. Any man who was eligible for 
militia duty and who refused to bear arms was required to 
pay to the township committee four shillings Proclamation 
money per month, as an equivalent for personal service. 

At first the citizens were merely "requested" to join 
the militia; but as time went on the laws became more and 
more stringent, until practically every eligible man was com- 
pelled to render military service. Although the militia was 
a local organization, properly within the exclusive control 
of the State legislature, yet we find the Continental Congress 
occasionally passing a law for Its regulation. For example, 
the penalties imposed for the failure of militiamen to attend 
musters and reviews were fixed by the federal authorities, 
and consisted of fines varying in amount according to the 



Military Organizations 47 

rank of the offender. In 1780 fines were imposed upon nearly 
all the able-bodied men of Pequannock Township, Morris 
County, about 300 in number, for neglecting to turn out at 
the time of the battle of Springfield. These delinquents 
were chiefly of Dutch descent, and seem to have taken but 
little interest in the struggle for freedom.' 

The men enrolled in the militia were not required to 
render constant service, but were called at certain times for 
short periods or tours of military duty; the object of this 
arrangement being to interfere as little as possible with their 
usual occupations. In 1776 they were divided into two 
classes, each of which served one month and was then re- 
lieved by the other. During a great part of the war the 
militia served on this basis of monthly classes. 

In the summer of 1776 the peril of New York caused 
the Continental Congress to call upon the States for 13,800 
militia. Of this number. New Jersey furnished 3,300. They 
were divided into 5 battalions of 8 companies each, with 78 
privates in a company, and their term of service was limited 
to December ist of the same year. The Essex County 
troops formed a battalion of 3 companies; and one of the 
other battalions consisted of 4 companies of Morris County 
and 4 of Sussex. 

In 1778 the militia of the State was reorganized and 
formed into 2 brigades, the troops of Bergen, Essex, Mid- 
dlesex, Morris, Somerset and Sussex forming one, and those 
of the other counties the other. In 1781 the number of 
brigades was increased to three, called the Upper, Middle 
and Lower Brigades, the first including the troops of Morris 
and Essex Counties. 

Independent companies of artillery and troops of horse 
were raised from time to time in various parts of the State, 
either by direction of the governor or by special laws. 

The minute men were so called because required to 

'Rivington's Royal Gazette No. 397, July 19, 1780. 



48 History of Chatham 

serve at a minute's notice whenever and wherever they might 
be needed. They were organized in response to a call of the 
Continental Congress, nearly 4,000 being drawn from the 
New Jersey militia and formed into 62 minute companies, 
of which the counties of Morris and Essex each furnished 
six. These men were given precedence over the common 
militia, and their term of service was limited to four months. 
They were to hold themselves in readiness for instant ser- 
vice, and, in case of alarm, to rendezvous at the homes of 
their captains. 

Owing to the danger to which the State was exposed when 
both New York and Philadelphia were in the hands of the 
British, and to the fact that the system of monthly service 
required of the militia interfered with the cultivation of the 
farms, it was found necessary from time to time to embody, 
for limited periods, a certain number of troops for special 
service. These organizations were designated the State 
troops, although also known as New Jersey Levies and Five 
Months Levies, and were composed entirely of volunteers 
from the militia. They were chiefly employed in the por- 
tions of the State which were particularly exposed to the 
enemy, although they were prepared to extend their service 
to the adjoining States if occasion required. 

In the summer of 1776 Congress decided to reinforce 
the army in the field with a new species of troops of an inter- 
mediate grade, who, it was believed, would be more per- 
manent than the militia, and more easily recruited than the 
Continentals. This organization was called the Flying 
Camp. It was a sort of outpost, having its headquarters at 
■ Perth Amboy, N. J., and was designed, as its name 
implied, to be suddenly moved to any place where reinforce- 
ments were needed. For this service 10,000 men were 
called from the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Mary- 
land, and 2,000 were detached from the New Jersey militia. 
The Jerseymen comprised 30 companies of 64 privates each ; 



Lord Stirling's Activities 49 

Morris County furnishing two companies and Essex three.' 
Few of the patriots of 1775 were more actively inter- 
ested in recruiting and organizing the mihtia of northern 
New Jersey than was Lord Stirling of Basking Ridge. 
Owmg to his energy and assiduity in this direction, as well 
as to the experience he had gained in the French and Indian 
War, he was chosen colonel of the First Somerset County 
battalion, which he had been instrumental in raising; and it is 
said that he supplied arms at his own expense to such of the 
men as could not otherwise obtain them.-' In March, 1776, 
he was commissioned brigadier-general, and placed in com- 
mand of the first two Continental regiments raised in this 
State; but his interest in the militia was not abated by his 
transfer to the more important branch of the service. 
Among the papers of General Washington now preserved in 
the Library of Congress there is a paper entitled "Alarm 
Posts and Plans of Rendezvous of the Militia at New 
Jersey," which is thought to have been sent him by Lord 
Stirling, as a copy of it is found in a collection of Stirling's 
letters in the library of the New York Historical Society. 
The original is indorsed with the date May, 1780. It reads 
as follows: 

COUNTIES & COLONELS 
AilDDLESEX— North of Raratan. 

Colonel Webster. To assemble at the Short Hills and Quib- 

ble Town. To have some small Parties 
ot the most trusty men to watch the mo- 
(^) tions of the Enemy and to give him fre- 

' Speaking of the Flying Camp, Henry Belcher, an English writer savs- 
The Flying Camp is a pet phrase of Con<^ress It was an ;m,„;J, ( 
evoked ont of the riff-raff o'f the militia o^f the Midd e S.a te'Ti h a ^ 
of forming the ranc-Ur.ur class of combatant, every man of vvh ch shoil7 
according to military custom have been shot on capture. But the Flvlnt 
Camp, about which so manv directions are given in the Tourn-,1 of rnn„ ^ 
appea. to have been a cJ.ose ....V/'-rt Firu 'VZTJ %^"%^::: 

= GriswoId's Washington and the Generals of the Revolution, I. 171. 



50 History of Chatham 

quent information which he is to communi- 
cate to the Commander in Chief as soon 
as possible. 

If he finds the Enemy advancing into the 

(2) Country to endeavor to keep on one or 
both their Flanks and as near their Front 
as possible, and to keep up a constant fire 
with small Parties in different places. 

If they keep towards the Mountains and 

(3) seem to intend to penetrate them He is to 
possess himself of the gap they move to- 
wards and give them all the annoyance 
and obstruction in his Power. 

iVIIDDLESEX— South of Raratan. 

Colonels Wilson To assemble at Brunswick and South 

and Scudder. Bridge And further to act according to 

(1) (2) Circumstances most effectually to distress 

and annoy the Enemy. 

ESSEX— Southern Part and Middle Part. 

Colonel Jaques. To assemble at Connecticut Farms, Wt. 

Field, Springfield and Mountain Meeting 
House. (1) (2) (3) 

Colonel Cortland— To assemble Part in the Hills in the Rear 

Northern Part. of Newark, and Part at the Heights near 

Doctr. Roaches above Aquackanonck. 
(1) (2) (3) 

SOMERSET— North of Raratan. 

To assemble Part at Capt. Tingleys near 
Quibble Town gap, and Part at Turkey 
Meeting House to have a particular atten- 
tion to all the gaps and Passes of the Moun- 
tains between Quibble Town and Turkey. 
(1) (2) (3) 




LORD STIRLING 



Rendezvous of the Miliha 



51 



SOMERSET— South of Easton. 

To assemble at the landing Bridgi- and 
. Part at Hound Hrook. 

(1) (2) 



Colo. V'and\ke. 



HERGEN COUNTY. 



Colo. D\e. 



If He finds the Enemy are pushing to- 
wards the Mountains He is to move his 
Regiment within the Mountains, and to 
act in connection with Colonel Freling- 
heisen in opposing them. 

To assemble on the Heights near Hacken- 
sack new Bridge. Early to send out one 
Party to the little Ferry and another to- 
wards Closter to prevent the Enemy 
turning his right or left. 

(1) (2) (3) 

MORRIS COUNTY. 

Colo. Seeley. The lower Part to assemble as soon as 

possible at Cliatham and Bottle Hill. 
(1) (2) (3) 

To assemble as soon as possible af their 
The Upper Part. usual Places of Meeting, and to march 

Colo. Monson. (4) by Companies by the shortest Roads to 

Morris Town and there take further 

orders. 



SUSSEX 
Colo. Seward & 
Colo. Webster 
at Phillipsburg. 



To assemble at their usual Places of Meet- 
ing by Companies and to march b\- the 
shortest Roads to Morris Town and there 
take further orders. 



HUNTERDON COUNTY. 



Colo. Beaver. 



To assemble at German Town and to 
march by \"eal Town to Morris Town. 



^2 History of Chatham 

Colonel Taylor To assemble at Reading Town Meeting 

& Lt. Col. Chamberlin. House and to march by Pluckimin 

Toumin's Tavern and Baskingridge 
Meeting House to Morris Town. 

HUNTERDON COUNTY. 

To assemble at Hopewell and to march by 
Colonel Phillips. Somerset Court House and Bound Brook 

to Morris Town. 

BURLINGTON COUNTY. 

Colo. Wm. Shrive To assemble at Princeton and to march by 

Colo. Thos. Reonalds Somerset Court House and Bound Brook 

to Morris Town. 

Colo. Holmes. To assemble at South Amboy and along 

the shore towards Middletown. 

Colo. Hendrickson. To assemble at Middletown, Tinton Falls, 

Colo Saml. Toumin. Shrewsbury and Deal. To watcli the 
Motions of the Enemy, and in Case of 
their Landing to give them all the annoy- 
ance in their Power. ^ 

We learn from local tradition and from references to 
the village in Revolutionary correspondence, military orders, 
soldiers' diaries, and news-items contained in public prints, 
that Chatham was the scene of much activity during the war, 
and was regarded as a place of considerable importance 
from a military standpoint. It was known as a "common 
station of the militia guard," — other similar posts being 
Newark, Elizabethtown, Springfield, Lyons Farms, Wood- 
bridge and Rahway' — and there is no doubt that soldiers 
were stationed here during the greater part of the Revolu- 
tionary period. In view of the stringency of the laws 
governing military service, we may be reasonably sure that 
every able-bodied man of Chatham fought for his country at 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B. XI, pt. 2, 369. 
"Condit Genealogical Notes. 



CoNDiT Genealogical Notes 53 

some time during the war; but details are not obtainable, 
because the existing muster-rolls are very incomplete. 

An interesting source of information relating to the 
Morris County militia is a manuscript volume called the 
"Condit Genealogical Notes" in the library of the New 
Jersey Historical Society. It is a memorandum-book 
written by Dr. Lewis Condit of Morristown, containing ab- 
stracts of affidavits made by Revolutionary soldiers when 
applying for pensions, many years after the close of the war 
(1833 to 1840), when the veterans were advanced in life, 
and needed financial assistance. The notes or abstracts 
from the original affidavits were apparently preserved by 
Dr. Condit because of their data concerning the old 
families of Morris County; and they possess interest from a 
genealogical, as well as a historical, standpoint. 

The veterans in their affidavits describe their services 
in a very general way, for so many years had elapsed since 
the occurrences referred to that most of the details had been 
forgotten. They make frequent mention of Chatham as a 
place where the militiamen were enrolled, stationed, or dis- 
charged, but these references are very meager and frag- 
mentary. Among those who performed one or more tours of 
duty at Chatham were Captains Artimas Day, Josiah Hall, 
Timothy Tuttle and Jonas Ward; Lieutenant Phineas Far- 
rand; Ensign Abram Harrison; — O'Hara, a subaltern of 
cavalry; and privates John Ball, James Doty, Joseph 
Kitchell, Luke Miller, Amos Potter, Samuel Shipman, Ben- 
jamin Thompson and Robert Young. James Doty, Luke 
Miller, Samuel Shipman and Benjamin Thompson enlisted 
at Chatham, and Luke Miller received his discharge here.' 
The affidavit which is most complete as to details in 
Dr. Condit's book is that of Daniel Skellinger of Chatham. 
He was born March 12, 1757, at Canterbury, Connecticut, 

'Nathaniel Sayre was another militiaman who performed a month's 
tour of duty at Chatham, Springfield, etc., in the autumn of mi.-Banta's 
Aayre Genealogy, 207. 



54 History of Chatham 

fourteen or fifteen miles from Norwich, and lived there 
until two years of age, when his parents removed to Bridge- 
hampton, Long Island. He came to Chatham in the spring 
of 1776, and during the ensuing summer joined Captain N. 
B. Luce's company of Colonel Martin's regiment as a volun- 
teer. He fought in the battle of Long Island during his first 
tour; marching through Morrlstown, Newark, and Powles 
Hook to New York and thence to Long Island, staying in 
New York one night. He arrived on the island a week 
before the battle, in which his company and regiment par- 
ticipated, and left the island the night before Washington 
withdrew. He had served six weeks when discharged. 

His second tour was in September, when he was 
stationed at Elizabethtown for guard duty under Captain 
Nathaniel Horton, Colonel Drake and General Heard. He 
also served one month in November, doing guard duty at 
Elizabethtown under Captain Horton. He was at Eliza- 
bethtown when Washington retreated through New Jersey, 
but did not follow him : he was discharged and went home. 

In the spring of 1777, probably in March, the weather 
being cold and windy, he served a month under Captain 
Torry and General Winds at Van W [illegible]. In time of 
planting corn (May) he was out one month, going to 
Elizabethtown and then to Newark for guard duty. In time 
of cutting grass (the latter part of June) he was called for 
guard duty under Captain Horton, Colonel Drake and 
General Winds. In August and September he served a 
month at Elizabethtown under Captain Horton and Colonel 
Drake, and in November a month under Captain Horton at 
Elizabethtown doing guard duty. 

He was out one month in March and April, 1778, per- 
forming guard duty at Elizabethtown under Colonel Drake. 
In May and June he served a month under Captain Horton 
and General Winds. Started for Mon[mou]th battle, but 
as a result of information received on the road. General 



CoNDiT Genealogical Notes 55 

Winds returned to Elizabethtown, where Skellinger stayed 
out the month. His station was a little west of the town. 
In August he served a month at Elizabethtown under 
Horton, Drake and Winds; and in November marched to 
Elizabethtown, Newark and Acquackanonck under Horton, 
when Jerry Bell was accidentally shot and killed. 

In the spring of 1779 he performed a tour under 
Captain Horton at Elizabethtown, doing guard duty. In 
June or July he served a month under Captain Torry, 
marching against the Indians who had burnt the Minisink 
settlement on the Delaware. General Winds commanded. 
They marched by way of Dingman's Ferry, but found that 
the Indians had retired. 

In the spring of 1780 he served a tour at Elizabeth- 
town under Captain Horton. In June he fought at Con- 
necticut Farms when the place was burnt and Mrs. Caldwell 
shot; and also served at Springfield after that village was 
destroyed. His company had been lying at Elizabethtown. 
He served at least two tours at Elizabethtown in the sum- 
mer and fall after Springfield was burnt. 

He is corroborated by the testimony of Elisha Skel- 
linger. They were both in the battle of Long Island, in 
Captain Luce's company of Colonel Martin's regiment. 
Elisha continued with the army under Washington through 
the summer at Fort Washington, White Plains and (after 
crossing the Hudson) beyond New Brunswick. He was 
discharged near New Brunswick, and returned home. He 
remembered seeing Daniel in the battle of Springfield, and 
knew of his going to Minisink. 

The selection of Chatham as a station or rendezvous of 
the militia was largely due to the fact that the Passaic bridge 
on the main road was considered by the authorities to be a 
point of vital importance which must be carefully guarded. 
There was a similar structure at Turkey, now New Provi- 
dence, and another at Hanover; but Chatham bridge, being 



56 History of Chatham 

on the direct road from Morristown to Elizabeth, and 
thence by water to New York, seems to have been con- 
sidered the principal entrance to Morris County, and for 
this reason, particularly exposed to an advance of the 
British, who were believed to be constantly awaiting a favor- 
able opportunity to invade this part of the State, for the 
purpose of destroying the stores and powder-mill at Mor- 
ristown. It is evident from the records now available that 
the greatest care was taken in guarding Chatham bridge. 
Whenever an advance of the enemy was apprehended, a 
formidable body of troops was stationed here, though their 
number was reduced when hostilities in this region tem- 
porarily ceased. 

The necessity of placing a guard at this point was 
perceived soon after the commencement of the war by 
Colonel Benoni Hathaway of Morristown, and a militia 
company under Captain Timothy Tuttle of Whippany was 
one of the first detachments stationed here for the purpose. 
Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle, in his historical writings, mentions an 
incident occurring at Chatham bridge which caused much 
excitement at the time. It was the shooting of Breese Wil- 
liams, who attempted to force his way over the bridge in 
defiance of the sentries, two brothers named John and Jacob 
Garrigus. Williams, who was intoxicated, insulted and 
abused the sentinels upon their refusal to allow him to pass, 
and at length he seized the musket of one of the guards and 
tried to wrest it from his hands, when the other soldier, 
fearing that he would succeed in his purpose, shot him in the 
groin and inflicted a fatal wound. ^ 

The circumstances of this tragic episode are described 
somewhat differently by J. Percy Crayon in his Rockaway 
Records of Morris County Families. That author states 
that the Garrigus family was of French Huguenot descent, 

'Historical Mag.izine, Ser. 2, IX, 331; Affidavit of Robert Young in 
Condit Genealogical Notes. 



GuARDixG Chatham Bridge 57 

li\ing in Philadelphia during the colonial period; that Jacob 
Garrigus, the first of the name in Morris County, settled 
near Rockaway upon what \Aas afterwards known as the 
Peck farm, on the road to Littleton; and that he and his 
sons, David, Jacob, Jr., John and Isaac, were soldiers in the 
Revolution, serving in the companies of Captain Robert 
Gaston and Captain Josiah Hall. 

It is related [continues Mr. Crayon] that whi-n Da\id was 
doing duty as guard, one Foster Williams, son oi Samuel, of Shon- 
gom, had laid a wager with some of the Compan\ , that he could take 
David's musket away from him while he was on his post. He came 
up and demanded his musket, but David well knowing tlie penalty 
resisted, when AVilliams undertook to deprive him of his musket hy 
force, and was shot, so that he died a few hours after for his rash 
wager. 

The death of Williams produced a deep impression 
upon the soldiers then stationed in the neighborhood, and it 
is mentioned in several of the affidaxits contamed in Dr. 
Condit's book. 

The assertion has been made by historians of recognized 
authority that one of the sentries posted at Chatham bridge 
was Ashbel Green, the fifteen-year-old son of Rev. Jacob 
Green, pastor of the Hanover Presbyterian church, and that 
he arrested a stranger who attempted to cross the river 
without giving the countersign; but the writer of these pages 
is of the opinion that this is an error, and that the above 
incident in the life of Dr. Green occurred upon the bridge 
at Hanover in the neighborhood of his home. 

The supposition that Green was stationed at Chatham 
is based solely upon a statement contained in his auto- 
biography. Describing his early home at Hanover, he 
writes : 

You know that the place of my birth and boyhood was in East 
New Jersey, within a mile of the line which divides the counties of 



58 History of Chatham 

Essex and Morris ; my paternal residence was in the latter of these 
counties. This location placed our family, at a certain period, in 
very hazardous circumstances; for on the retreat of General Wash- 
ington, and the pursuit of the British army, from the Hudson river 
to the Delaware, we were within twelve miles of the enemy's line of 
march. 

After alluding to a rumor that a party of British light 
horse was about to raid the village of Hanover for the 
purpose of seizing some of the leading patriots, of whom his 
father, owing to his prominence in the American cause, was 
certain to be one, and describing the flight of his parents, 
who remained in hiding until the report was proven to be 
groundless. Dr. Green continues: 

It was at this eventful period, that the whole militia of the upper 
part of New Jersey were called into active service, and left their 
houses and families, with no other protectors than hoys, and old men, 

no longer capable of public military duty The tories, too, 

who had remained, and had kept silence through fear, now made a 
merit of their known opinions and feelings ; and sought to recom- 
mend themselves to the British, by giving them every information 
which was calculated to aid their cause and injure ours. To pre- 
vent this, as far as possible, the old men and boys of our neighbour- 
hood kept guard, at a bridge over the Passaic river, which was the 
usual passing place from the county of Morris to that of Essex, where 
the British troops were in force. At the station where this guard 
was kept, I stood sentinel, in my fifteenth year, in as cold a Decem- 
ber night as our climate almost ever knows. I arrested one man, who 
was going to the bridge. He was very loth to be stopped, but as he 
had not the countersign, I presented my bayonet, which my previous 
training had taught me to do secundum artem, and he yielded at 
once ; and I conducted him to the officer of the guard. Whether he 
was going to the British or not, I am not sure; although the circum- 
stances were suspicious.' 

The author conceives that Dr. Green's words "our 

'Jones's Ashbel Green, 56, 58. 



Guarding Chatham Bridge 59 

neighborhood," as well as his context, indicate that the 
bridge he referred to was the structure at Hanover, and not 
the one at Chatham. The latter was considered of sufficient 
importance to be guarded by regularly enlisted soldiers; 
and if the absence of troops at any time had necessitated 
the employment of boys and aged men as sentries, it seems 
much more likely that the boys of Chatham would have been 
chosen rather than that Green would have been sent for. 
Moreover, had the doctor, at so tender an age, been sent 
a distance of five miles from home to perform military ser- 
vice at night in a strange village, the incident would have 
made so deep an impression upon his mind that he would 
have been almost certain to mention it. The only reference 
to Chatham in his autobiography is contained in his recollec- 
tion of the battle of Springfield, at which time he was 
eighteen years of age, and regularly enrolled in the militia. 
He writes: "June 23d, 1780. Alarm— marched to Chatham, 
from thence to the left of Springfield."' As he thus records 
the mere fact of passing through Chatham, it seems hardly 
possible that he could have been regularly employed in 
guarding the bridge at this place without making more par- 
ticular allusion to the circumstance. 

Owing to the vigilance of the sentries at Chatham 
bridge, to the presence of troops in the village, and to the 
enemy's hesitancy to enter the defiles of the Short Hills 
between Springfield and Chatham, where they might be 
easily led into ambush, the British never succeeded in pene- 
trating Morris County, although an advance upon Morris- 
town was repeatedly attempted, and was constantly feared 
by the patriots. Dr. Joseph F. Tuttle is the authority for 
the statement that shortly after the battle of Springfield, in 
June, 1780, a British detachment was sent to Chatham for 
the purpose of exchanging prisoners. The troops stationed 
m the village at the time were commanded by General Wil- 

' Jones's Ashbel Green, 119. 



6o 



History of Chatham 



Ham Winds, of Rockaway, to whom the British officer 
jocularly remarked that he purposed to dine with him the 
next day in Morristovvn — a taunt which drew from the 
sturdy patriot the retort that if the Englishman dined in 
Morristown next day, he would sup in h — 1 next night.' 

'Annals of Morris County; Revolutionary Forefathers of Morris 
County; Washington in Morris County. 




i ,\^'^^^,^ 



CHAPTER IV 

Biographical — Jolin Budd and his Descendants — The Horton 
Family — Jacob Mnrrell — Gen. Elias Dayton — Capt. Jonathan 
Dayton — Col. S}lvanus Seely. 

JOHN BUDD AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 

MENTION has been made in a previous chapter of 
John Budd, a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, and 
a member of the West Jersey board of proprietors, who at 
one time owned the entire district embraced in the older part 
of the Borough of Chatham, and was probably the most 
extensive landowner in the present county of Morris. He 
was a son of Thomas Budd of Burlington and Philadelphia, 
and traced his descent from John Budd, F'arl of Berkshire, 
whose eldest son fell in the battle of Barnet. 

Thomas Budd, the founder of the family in America, 
was the son of a clergyman of the same name, rector of 
Martosh parish in Somersetshire, and afterwards a minister 
among the Quakers. The son emigrated to America in 
1668, and settled in Burlington, N. J., whither he was fol- 
lowed a few years later by three of his brothers. He was a 
successful merchant, residing in Burlington until 1690, and 
thereafter in Philadelphia, where he died in 1697. Prom 
an early date his name is closely associated with the history 
of West Jersey. He was a leading member of the council 
of proprietors, having acquired a propriety in 1676; and 
when the first form of government was established in the 
colony he was instrumental in framing a code of laws. He 

married Susannah , and had four children: John, 

Thomas, Mary and Rose.' 

'Tanner's New Jersey, 15; Smith's New Jersey, 134; New Jersey 
Archives, Ser. 1, XXIll, 70; Lee's Genealogical History of N. J., 434, 944. 



62 History of Chatham 

John Budd, eldest child of Thomas Budd, became a 
resident of what is now Morris County, N... J., about the year 
1 72 I, establishing his home in Hanover Township approxi- 
mately two miles from Morristown. His wealth, business 
interests, and connection with the proprietary body gave him 
a prominence in the community which was soon recognized 
by his selection for public office; and in 1728 we find him 
serving as a justice of the peace of Hanover Township and 
a judge of the Hunterdon County courts. When Morris 
County was set off from Hunterdon he was appointed one 
of its judges, and held his seat on the bench until the 
September term, 1747. Upon his removal from Phila- 
delphia he renounced the religion of the Friends, and 
united with the Presbyterian church at Hanover, which he 
represented in the Synod of Philadelphia in 1722, 1723, 
1724, 1728, 1729 and 1730.' 

His residence in Hanover Township stood on the rising 
ground not far from the northeast corner formed by the 
intersection of the road from Morristown to South Orange 
(the old Columbia turnpike), and the road now called Park 
Avenue, leading from Madison to Monroe. He died about 
1754, and was buried in a family cemetery on his farm. 
When the road to South Orange was converted into a 
turnpike its line was straightened where it crossed the Budd 
property, leaving a narrow gore of land between the new 
highway and the former road. This gore, which lay south 
of the turnpike and east of Park Avenue, contained the place 
of Judge Budd's interment; but no trace of his grave can 
now be seen. 

John Budd married, ist, Rebecca, daughter of John 
Smith of Bristol, R. I.;' 2d, Sarah Cosens.' The latter sur- 
vived him, and married, as her second husband, John Scott, 

' Wickes's History of Medicine, 173. 
'Budd Papers, Package 13, No. 43. 
'New Jersey Archives, Ser. 1, XXX, 73. 



The Budd Family 6;^ 

who had been Judge Budd's business manager. The judge 
had children: 

1. John, a physician of Salem, N. J., who went to 
Charleston, S. C, shortly before the Revolution, and served 
during that war as a captain in the Fourth South Carolina 
Artillery. 

2. Thomas, a physician of Hanover, and a surgeon in 
the navy, who perished in the blowing up of the Randolph 
in an action with a British frigate. 

3. William, who went to England. 

4. Bern (Bernard or Barnabas), a physician of Mor- 
ris County. 

5. SusAXNAH, married Stewart, whose children 

founded the town of Stewartsville, N. J. 

6. Catherine, married David Gould of Morris 
County, and removed to Charleston, S. C 

Dr. Bern Budd was born in 1738, and died in 1777. 
He studied under Dr. Chiven of Hibernia, near Rockaway, 
N. J.,' and became a physician and surgeon of exceptional 
skill. He lived near his father's residence, about two miles 
from Morristown in the vicinity of Monroe ; having received 
a portion of the homestead farm as his inheritance." His 
recognized ability and engaging personality won for him a 
large and lucrative practice which extended throughout the 
southeastern section of Morris County, including the village 
of Chatham; and so highly was he esteemed, that a serious 
difficulty with the government, in which he became involved 
during the late colonial period, caused no diminution of his 
practice. His name appears first among the fourteen 
founders of the New Jersey Medical Society in 1766. He 

'New Jersey Archives, Ser. 1, XX, 208; Ibid., XXH, 58; Ibid., XXIV, 
354; Ibid., ,X.XV, 435; Wickes's Historv of Medicine, 171, 178; Heitmaii's His- 
torical Register, 130; Lee's Genealogical Historv of X. J., 1311; Budd Papers 
Package 21, No. 18. ' 

'Wickes's History of Medicine, 173; Tuttle's Revolutionary Frag- 
ments, No. 5. 

'Budd Papers, Package 16. 



64 History of Chatham 

participated in the Revolutionary struggle, entering tlie ser- 
vice of his country on September 12, 1777, as a surgeon of 
Winds' brigade of Morris County militia. He died of 
putrid fever on the 14th of the following December, and was 
buried in the family cemetery on his father's farm; but his 
grave was not marked with a monument, and its location 
has been lost/ 

Dr. Budd married Phebe Wheeler of Morris County, 
and had children: i, John C; 2, David; 3, William; 4, 
Sarah; 5, Mary." John and David entered the medical 
profession, the former practising in Morris County, and 
the latter in Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Dr. John C. Budd, born in Morristown, May 26, 
1762, died in Orange, January 12, 1845, was the first mem- 
ber of his family to reside in the neighborhood of Chatham. 
By his marriage with Mary, daughter of Moses Lum, he 
came into possession of the property now known as the 
Budd homestead farm, which lies just beyond the borough 
limits on Passaic Avenue, and is part of a large tract which 
was sold by his grandfather. Judge Budd, to Samuel Lum, 
one of the first settlers.' 

'Biographical Encyclopaedia of New Jersey, 388; Stryker's Officers and 
Men of New Jersey in the Revolution, 376; Morristown Bill of Moitality. 

" Wickes's History of Medicine, 173; Budd Papers, Package 21, No. 18. 

^Passaic Avenue, it is believed, was originally a private lane leading 
from the farm to the village. It was known for many years as Budd Lane 
— so called in honor of the Budd family in general, and of Dr. John C. 
Budd in particular — and its change of appellation is much to be regretted. 
The original names of ancient roads often possess a historic significance 
and value which should not be lightly disregarded or lost through mean- 
ingless changes. In this instance no valid reason is assigned, or can be 
imagined, for the adoption of the name "Passaic Avenue." In its present 
application it is not especially appropriate, nor is it in anywise distinctive 
of this municipality, since it is a street-name which Chatham shares with 
many other towns in the valley of the Passaic. But the name of Budd as 
applied to this highway speaks to us of a titled family of England, a pioneer 
family of .America, whose members from the earliest times have been mak- 
ers of New Jersey history, who were numbered among the founders of 
Morris County, and who have been identified to a marked degree with the 
origin and growth of Chatham. 



The Budd Family 5^ 

Dr. Budd served in the militia during tlie Revolu- 
tionary War. He was a student of Dr. John Condit of 
Orange, and became one of the most celebrated practitioners 
of medicine and surgery in northern New Jersey. Many 
young doctors studied the rudiments of their profession 
under his tuleage. He is described as of medium height, 
and stout, with a large head inclined to baldness, and J 
cheerful, kindly face. He was perfectly erect, even at the 
advanced age of 82. His manner was somewhat brusque 
and stern, belying a sympathetic and benevolent disposition. 
He possessed a keen sense of humor, and generally pre- 
ferred fun to professional toil; but he nevertheless devoted 
himself conscientiously to his practice, which was very widely 
extended. He had two famous prescriptions: one he called 
his Tincture Botana>, and the other his Diabolical Pill. "The 
first," he said, "I give when I don't know what else to do, 
for it emmenagogue, sedative, cathartic, tonic and ex- 
pectorant, and cannot fail to hit somewhere."' 

"Old Dr. Budd," as he was invariably called during the 
later years of his life, was reputed, in those days of ignor- 
ance and superstition, to have control over the powers of 
darkness, and to be able to summon at will supernatural 
visitants from the infernal regions— a reputation doubtless 
gained through his love of practical jokes. Dr. J. Henry 
Clark describes in the following anecdote how Dr. Budd was 
once frightened by an apparition of his own contriving. He 
was returning home one Saturday night from a professional 
call at the Short Hills, and when passing Day's tavern near 
Chatham bridge he was surprised, in view of the lateness 
of the hour, to see a light in the window. Stopping to in- 
vestigate, he learned that several guests of the hotel per- 
sisted in playing cards in the parlor, despite the protests of 
Mrs. Day, who wished to close the house for the night. At 

n, \f''&'y 9^',"^ •T"'* ^^" °^ ^"^ J^^^y '" 'he Revolution. 524- 
Clark s Medical Men of New Jersey, 34; Munsell's Morris County 198- 
Biographical Encyclopaedia of New Jersey, 388. 



66 History of Chatham 

her request Dr. Budd remonstrated with the gamblers, point- 
ing out that, as it was after midnight, they were desecrating 
the Sabbath, and intimating that the devil might appear if 
they did not desist; but they responded only with gibes and 
jests, observing that he afforded an example of "Satan re- 
proving sin;" and the doctor determined to produce an 
artificial demon to frighten them from the premises. 

Asleep on the floor of the bar-room were some boys 
employed as chimney-sweeps, who were returning from New 
York to spend the Sabbath. Dr. Budd awakened one of the 
smallest, who readily agreed, for a gratuity, to represent the 
devil coming down the chimney; providing himself for this 
purpose with a pair of trace-chains, and a fresh cowhide 
having the horns and hoofs attached, which he found in the 
barn. The huge, old-fashioned chimney, before which the 
card party was seated, communicated also with the room ad- 
joining. Sending Mrs. Day's son to extinguish the fire in the 
parlor, and to tell the card players that if they would not 
cease their sport, they should at least have no fire, the doctor 
conducted the chimney-sweep to the adjoining room, direct- 
ing him to ascend the flue of the chimney to its junction with 
the flue from the parlor, and to descend through the latter, 
rattling his chains the while, until he was sufficiently low to 
display the cowhide in the fireplace. 

Dr. Budd then returned to the unwelcome guests to 
observe the result of his stratagem, and he soon became so 
deeply interested in watching their game that he forgot to a 
great extent the intended movements of his accomplice. The 
latter found the chimney so hot that he was unable to main- 
tain his position and to play his role as agreed, and he sud- 
denly tumbled down into the fireplace. So hideous was his 
appearance in the dim candle-light, covered with the hide, 
blackened with soot, and enveloped in a great cloud of dust, 
that for a moment the doctor himself was considerably 
startled. The gamesters were extremely terrified, and left 



The Horton I'amilv g.- 

the house with the utmost precipitation ; while Dr. Budd, re- 
covering from his own fright, hastened to bar the dOor 
agamst them. 

Throughout the viUage the appearance of the devil to 
the Sabbath-breakers was believed to have been a veritable- 
visitation of Satan. It caused much excitement, and awak- 
ened renewed interest in religion, resulting in several con- 
versions. It was chosen by the pastor of a local church as 
the subject of a sermon, which, however, he was dissuaded 
from preaching by Dr. Budd.' 

Dr. John C. Budd married (1) Mary Lum, (2) Betsey Cobeit 
a widow ot New York. His children (last two by second marriage)' 
were : ■■ » / 

n. ip ^"7^ ^^;' '"i Phi-^'^^i"" of New York, m. Catherine, dau. ot 
David Reynolds ot Madison. 

2. John S., m. Charlotte, dau. of Aaron M. Ward 
J. M.ARV C, m. John Meeker. 

Barr"^' ^"'^''^■^ V.4SHTI., m. (1) Parrot Reynolds, (2) Noble 
5. Jane Caroline, m. Israel Dickinson 

An f p^'^'f r' o- "'• ^ ' ^ ^=*"*-'5 • '■'•'"• °f John Ward, (2) Jane 
dau. of Rev. John Hancock. ■' 

r ^l ^"f.';-'u- *" ^'^"'''^ '^'^"°" "f Connecticut. (2) 

Lounsbury of Michigan. 

8. Susan A., m. Ambrose Bruen of Madison 

y. Eliza, m. Stewart Marsh, .-, physician of Rahway N T 

r-' ,^^^";,"'• George Severn of Elizabeth, NT' 

T U V' , ^- '^"''f ''"^ ^•■"^"f o""'-^ "f the home^teiad is , son of 
John S., and a grandson of Dr. John C.^' 



THE HORTON FAMILY. 

On the southerly side of East Main Street, near the 
site of John J. Muchmore's present home, stood the Hor- 
ton residence in Revolutionary days.'' The head of the 
Horton family m this region was Rev. Azariah Horton, 

' Clark's Medical Men of New Jersey, 26. 
of N.^irl'm^'''''' ^''■'"'•' ^^'^"^^'°g'^^."'^' ; Lee's Gene.-,Iogical History 
'Tuttle's Madison Presby:erian Church, 116. 



68 History of Chatham 

who enjoyed the distinction of being the first American mis- 
sionary, and was for many years the pastor of the Presby- 
terian church of Madison, N. J. He was born in the ancient 
town of Soiithold, Long Island, March 20, 17 15, the son 
of Jonathan and Mary Tuthill Horton; was educated at 
Yale College, graduating in 1735, and was ordained by the 
Presbytery of New York in 1740. He declined a desirable 
charge on Long Island to take up the work of a missionary 
among the Indians of that region, particularly those of the 
Shinnecock tribe.' 

In those days there was in Edinburgh, Scotland, an 
organization known as the Society for Propagating Christian 
Knowledge, which, together with other activities of similar 
character, maintained missionaries among the North Amer- 
ican Indians. A committee of this society, consisting of 
several eminent clergymen of New York and vicinity, 
recommended Rev. Azariah Horton and Rev. David 
Brainard for this service, and the former was the first mis- 
sionary appointed. His charge extended along the southern 
shore of Long Island from Rockaway to Montauk Point — 
a distance of over 100 miles — and he traversed the entire 
district four or five times a year; living with the Indians, in- 
structing them in the art of reading, and preaching to them 
almost every day." 

Mr. Horton commenced this work in 1741, and con- 
tinued it for nine years, with the exception of 1742, when 
he journeyed to the "forks of the Delaware" (the junction 
of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers at Easton), to prepare 
the savages for the ministry of Mr. Brainard. 

His work among the Long Island Indians was aban- 
doned in 1750; their number having been greatly reduced by 
death or removal to other parts of the country, while those 
who remained seemed but little moved by his exhortations. 

'Prime's Long Island, 104; Whitaker's Southold, 263, 266. 
= Wm. P. Tuttle in The Madison Eagle, June 10, 1898; Gillies' Historical 
CoHections, II, 408, 409. 



The Horton Family 69 

For a short time he supplied a church connected with the 
Presbytery of Suffolk, and in 1751 or 1752 accepted a call 
to the Presbyterian church of Bottle Hill, now Madison, 
N. J., of which society he was the first regularly installed 
pastor. This pulpit he filled until November, 1776, 
when he resigned his charge, and took up his residence in the 
home of his son Foster in the village of Chatham, which at 
that time was included in the Madison parish.' 

During the following winter, when Washington's army 
was encamped in Morris County, an epidemic of smallpox 
broke out, making fearful ravages, not only among the 
troops, but also among the civilians, in whose houses many 
of the soldiers were quartered. As the Madison pulpit was 
still vacant, Mr. Horton faithfully resumed his pastoral 
duties, and labored heroically among the \ictims of the 
dread scourge, until he himself contracted the disease, and 
died in Chatham on March 27, 1777, at the age of sixty-two. 
His grave in the Madison cemetery is marked by a hand- 
some monument, the gift of an unknown gentleman who 
came to that village about 1855 or i860, and obtained per- 
mission to erect this memorial abo\'e Mr. Horton's final rest- 
ing place." 

Mrs. Horton was a Miss Eunice Foster of Shinnecock, 
near Southampton, Long Island. She is described as a very 
energetic and well educated woman, who, during her 
husband's ministry in Madison, took a deep and active in- 
terest in the work of his church. The pastor's salary was 
small, and to partially relieve him from the expense of main- 
taining the family and educating the children, his wife 
opened a general store in Madison. This enterprise proved 
successful, and she realized enough from the profits of the 

'Tuttle's Madison Presbyterian Church, 22. 

'Tuttle's Bottle Hill and Madison, 52, 53; Horton's Horton Genealogy, 
184. 



70 



History of Chatham 



business to purchase a valuable property In Chatham.' 
After the removal of the family to the latter place, she 
again engaged in trade, at this time in partnership with her 
son Foster; dealing in drygoods, staple groceries, and 
numerous articles of household use; the store being (prob- 
ably) located in an extension or wing of her residence. 

Eunice and Foster Horton were 
frequent advertisers in the Nczi 
Jersey Gazette of Trenton, and 
also In the local newspaper, the 
Nezv Jersey Jounuil. Mrs. Hor- 
ton died August 14, 1778, In the 
fifty-seventh year of her age. 

Some uncertainty exists con- 
cerning the children of Reverend 
Azariah Horton. In his will he 
mentions four sons: Jonathan, 
Azariah, James and Foster; and 
three daughters: Eunice, Mary 
and Hannah. It is claimed, how- 
ever, that there were other chil- 
dren. Caleb Horton, an ensign and 
later a captain in the western battalion of Morris County 
militia, is said to have been a son of the clerg>'man;' while 
in the Horton Genealogy by George F. Horton, mention is 
made of a son Charles, a surgeon in the Revolutionary army 
who died in service, and of a daughter Charlotte who mar- 
ried Chrystie. According to the late William P. Tuttle, 

of Madison, who devoted many years to the most painstak- 
ing historical research, Mr. Horton's daughter Charlotte 

died unmarried, and his daughter Eunice married 

Tuttle, of Hanover Xeck or Whippany, N. J.-' 

'Tuttle's Bottle Hill and Madison, 51. 
" Sherman's Historic Morrislown, 363. 
' The Madison Eayle, June 10, 1898. 




-^:^'m(gi 



OLD TIME CANDLESTICK 



The Horton Family ni 

The assertion has been made that Dr. Jonathan Hor- 
ton, an army surgeon in the Revolutionary War, was Pastor 
Horton's eldest son ; but this is an error. Mrs. Horton, who 
died in 1778, referred in her will to her deceased son Jona- 
than; while the surgeon of the same name was assigned to 
the general hospital of the Northern Department in 1779, 
and died in 1780.' It is probable that the doctor, as regards 
his military services, has been confused with the Charles 
Horton mentioned in the Horton Genealogy. The 
writer of these pages finds no record of a surgeon named 
Charles Horton in the army of the Revolution. 

Azariah Horton, the clergyman's second son, is said 
by Mr. Tuttle to have kept a store in Madison at one time. 
He occupied a position of trust and confidence in the Con- 
tinental army, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel attached 
to the commissary department, and was doubtless a prom- 
ment and influential citizen; yet It is impossible to learn very 
much about him. In the list of Pastor Horton's children 
contained in the Horton Genealogy, Azariah, Jr., is not even 
mentioned, nor does his name appear in Stryker's Officers 
and Men of New Jersey in the Revolution. He graduated 
from Princeton College, of which his father was one of the 
founders, in 1770, and received the degree of A. M. in 
I773.-' During the Revolution he entered the army, and 
acted as deputy commissary general of musters from June 
9, 1777. to January 12, 1780, when the department in which 
he served was discontinued.'^ The New Jersey Jonrnnl of 
Chatham pubhshed on May 1 1, 1779, this item: 

Chatham, May 11. The Honorable Congress have appointed 
Col. Azariah Horton D. Commissary general of Musters, and the 

"Heitman's Register of Continental Officers, 301; Strvker's Officers anH 
Men of New Jersey in the Revolution, 73. >Ker s utticers and 

•Alexander's Princeton College in the Eighteenth Century. 

= Statement contained in his memorial to Congtess.-PapJrs of the Con- 
linental Congress, No. 41, IT, iqj. ^ ' 



72 History of Chatham 

Commander in Chief has ordered accordingly that he be obeyed and 
respected as such. 

Colonel Horton made his home in Philadelphia after 
the close of the war, and presumably died in that city. 

Foster Horton was a merchant of Chatham. He was 
a leader in his father's parish, and a respected citizen. After 
his mother's death he continued the business which she had 
established in Chatham, trading alone until June, 1791, 
when he formed a partnership with Samuel Sheppard, who 
was also a merchant of this village, under the firm name 
of Horton & Sheppard.' 

Mary Horton, born 1752, died February 16, 1783, 
married Jacob Morrell who lived next door to her father in 
Chatham; and Hannah Horton, born 1757, died July 24, 

1844, married, ist, Phinney, and 2nd, Captain Lewis 

Woodruff, of Ehzabeth, N. J. 



JACOB MORRELL. 

Jacob Morrell, mentioned above as having married 
a daughter of Reverend Azariah Horton, was a son of 
Thomas and Judith Morrell, who were numbered among 
the early residents of Long Island, and whose family con- 
sisted of five sons: Jonathan, born 1726; Jacob, born 1728; 
Samuel, born 1733; Robert, born 1737; and Thomas, born 

I739-' 

Jacob, the second son, was a resident of Chatham in 
Revolutionary days, being the owner of the property ad- 
joining the Horton home on the west. His house is still 
standing, and is now occupied by Frederick S. Tall- 
madge. When and under what circumstances Mr. Morrell 
settled in Chatham, is not known. We find him living in 
New Jersey as early as 1773, when he advertised a reward 

'New Jersey Journal, No. 402, June 29, 1791. 
^ Morrell's Ancestry of Daniel Morrell, 45. 



The Morrell Family 73 

of $10 for a runaway slave named Hagar, who was under 
a warrant for theft. Mr. Morrell described himself in the 
advertisement simply as a resident of Morris County, for 
the village of Chatham had not yet received its present 
name.' He was enrolled among the freeholders entitled to 
vote for representatives in the Provincial Congress at an 
election held in Morristown May 27, 1776;- but the fact that 
he was thus listed does not necessarily indicate that he was 
then a resident of Morristown; for in the early days only 
one polling place was provided in each county, and the elec- 
tors of the entire district were obliged to go to the county 
seat to cast their votes. 

The Morrell mansion in Chatham was originally larger 
than at present, and was an uncommonly fine dwelling for 
the period of its erection. It was occupied for a time by 
General Washington, who, in all probability, chose it as his 
headquarters because it was then the most commodious 
private residence in the village. It is alleged that the frame 
of this house dates from 1 740. ' Although the building 
has been somewhat altered, its general outline and appear- 
ance remain unchanged. A covered porch with seats on 
either side has been replaced by a modern piazza; the parlor 
windows have been enlarged and extended down to the 
floor, and a bay window has been added at the east end of 
the house. At the opposite end there was formerly a large 
and roomy extension, which was doubtless a store in Revolu- 
tionary days, and was used for that purpose by Mason 
Ferris during the middle of the last century; but the exten- 
sion was purchased many years ago by Charles Farmer, 
who cut it away from the main building, and removed it to a 
lot on the west side of Passaic Avenue south of Centre 
Street, where it still remains, converted into a residence. 
It has been altered for the accommodation of two families, 
but originally contained only a single apartment. 

' Ne<iv York Gazelle, May 24, 1773. 
'Sherman's Historic Morristown, 194. 
'Hampton's Historical Discourse, 7. 



74 History of Chatham 

Mr. Morrell did not take a leading part in the military 
activities of his day, and, aside from the fact that he was 
once the host of the illustrious Washington, he was an in- 
conspicuous figure in civil life. We learn from his frequent 
advertisements in the New Jersey Journal that he was a 
merchant of Chatham, dealing principally in groceries, dry- 
goods, hardware, seeds and plants. In 1781 the cards of 
Samuel Ailing first appear in the newspaper, announcing that 
he is keeping the store formerly occupied by Jacob Morrell; 
but as the latter's advertisements continue, it is clear that 
he had not at that time retired from trade. He probably re- 
mained in business until 1790, when he advertised the sale of 
his house, with a large nail shop, and four acres of land. 

Mr. Morrell died at his home in Chatham, February 
23, 1 8 14, at the age of eighty-six. In his will he named five 
children: Calvin, Charlotte, Jane, Charles and Polly; his 
sons-in-law, Henry King' and Aaron Brookfield, being ap- 
pointed executors. His son, Charles, a resident of Morris- 
town, had a daughter, Louisa Frances, who married 
Benjamin L. Cuyler, and was the mother of Rev. Theodore 
L. Cuyler, D. D., an eminent clergyman of Brooklyn, N. Y.'' 



GENERAL ELIAS DAYTON. 

The name of Colonel (afterwards General) Elias 
Dayton, one of the most celebrated officers of the Revolution 
whom New Jersey produced, is closely connected with 
Chatham during the later years of the struggle for liberty. 
He was a native and prominent citizen of Elizabeth, but 
toward the close of the Revolution he established a tem- 
porary home near Chatham; this step being taken partly 
because of the insecurity of his native city, which was par- 
ticularly exposed to the incursions of the British, and partly 

' Husband of Charlotte. 

'Nicholl's The Earliest Cuylers in Holland and America, 47; Cuyler's 
Recollections of a Long Life; inscription on Jacob Morrell's tombstone. 



General Elias Dayton nr 

because his military duties required his continual presence in 
this vicinity. 

Colonel Dayton (to give him the title by which he was 
known while a resident of Chatham, for he did not become 
a general until about the end of the war) was born May i, 
1737, the son of Jonathan Dayton, one of the pioneer set- 
tlers of Elizabeth. On March 19, 1759, he entered the 
military service of the Province as a lieutenant; and a year 
later was promoted to a captaincy in the Jersey Blue regi- 
ment, attached to the regular British troops in the French 
and Indian War. He fought under General Wolfe on the 
Plains of Abraham; and in 1764 was placed in command 
of an expedition against the northern Indians near Detroit, 
for which service he received official commendation. 

In December, 1774, he was chosen a member of the 
Committee of Correspondence, upon which committee his 
father, then over 74 years of age, also served. Early in 
1775 he became the colonel of a regiment of militia which 
numbered among its members several who had fought with 
him against the Indians. In the following autumn he was 
appointed muster-master, and assisted in recruiting the first 
two regiments of Continental troops raised in New Jersey. 
He was commissioned colonel of the Third Continental regi- 
ment in February, 1776, and a little later was given the 
command of the operations against the tories and Indians 
in the Mohawk valley. During this campaign he built Fort 
Schuyler, on the site of F"ort Stanwix at Rome, and Fort 
Dayton at Herkimer. 

Colonel Dayton succeeded General Maxwell in com- 
mand of the Jersey Brigade on June 20, 1780. He par- 
ticipated in every battle of the Revolution in which the 
New Jersey line was engaged; notably Ticonderoga, Brandy- 
wine, Germantown, Monmouth (where his command was 
the first to attack the enemy), and Yorktown. In 1783 he 
was one of two brigadier-generals appointed for New Jersey 



76 History of Chatham 

to the Continental army; and ten years later was commis- 
sioned major-general of the Second Division of the New 
Jersey militia, holding this office until his death. 

Colonel Dayton is described as courteous, ingenuous, 
unassuming and scrupulously upright. In person and bear- 
ing he closely resembled General Washington, the likeness 
between the two officers being so strong that when their 
backs were turned it was difficult to distinguish them. The 
enemy was thought to have been deceived at times by this 
resemblance, and to have made Colonel Dayton the special 
object of their marksmanship, mistaking him for the 
commander-in-chief; for his horse was shot beneath 
him in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Spring- 
field, while his coat was riddled with bullets. 

Before and after the Revolution, Colonel Dayton was 
engaged in business as a merchant of Elizabeth, at first 
alone, and afterwards as a member of the firm of Elias 
Dayton & Son. He was elected to Congress in 1779, but 
declined the honor; though he was a delegate in 1787. He 
served for many years in the State Legislature, and was 
mentioned for the United States Constitutional Convention 
in 1787, but declined in favor of his son Jonathan. He also 
held office in his native city, being mayor of Elizabeth from 
1796 to 1805, with the exception of one year. He was a 
staunch member of the Presbyterian church, and was long 
the president of its board of trustees. Upon the formation 
of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, he was chosen 
its first president, and held this office until his death, which 
occurred October 22, 1807. 

Colonel Dayton married a Mrs. Rolfe. His children 
were: i, Jonathan; 2, Hannah, who married Colonel Mat- 
thias Ogden; 3, Elias Bailey; 4, Sally, who married Isaac G. 
Ogden of New York; 5, William; 6, Horace; 7, Aaron; and 
8, John.i 

'Clayton's Union Coiuitv, 95, 240; Appleton's Cyc. of American Biog- 
raphy; Hatfield's Elizabeth, 651-2; Drake's Slietches of the Revolution, 93, 95. 




GEXKKAI. Kl.lAS DAVTOX. 
From Clayton's Histnry of Union ("oiinty. 



The Davton Letters 77 

Colonel Dayton's home near Chatham was located on 
the south side of the turnpike about half a mile east of the 
river. The property is now included in the corporate limits 
of Summit. It was known for many years as the Much- 
more farm, and is now owned by John R. Todd. An occa- 
sional reference to Dayton's residence at Chatham may be 
found in a manuscript volume, now in the New York Public 
Library, which originally belonged to Sir Henry Clinton, 
and contained the reports of his spies. Under date of April 
4, 1 78 1, is this statement: 

Col: Dayton is ill at Chatham. He has but one company of 
light Infantry with him. 

And in the following June we find the following entry: 

Col: Dayton lives at Chatham with his family and pays occa- 
sional visits to Camp. Col : Dehart commands in his absence. 

Part of Colonel Dayton's correspondence of the Revo- 
lutionary period is quoted below. While the contents of the 
letters are of little historic value, the fact that they were 
written at, or addressed to, Chatham during the War of 
Independence gives them a certain local interest. The first 
two are found among the Washington papers in the Library 
of Congress; the others are in the possession of the author. 

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham May 4th: 1780. 
Sir 

By intelligence received this morning it appears that the enemy 
have a number of boats in readiness to move from N.York this eve- 
ning probably with about 1500 men, their object supposed to be our 
provision at Brunswick, as Capt. Ross who commands the armed 
sloop in the Kils mentioned to a person I sent over on Monda\ last, 
he then expected our stores in Brunswick were in their hands. 



78 History of Chatham 

In consequence of the intelligence I have sent an express to the 
commanding officer at the post and waggons are now going by order 
of Mr. Caldwell sufficient 1 hope to load up all the provision this 
night. I should have gone inimediateh to my Regiment had I not 
the promise of hearing from the other side by sun rising tomorrow 
morning. 

I have the honor to be Your Excellencys most Humble servant 

Ellas Daytox. 
[Addressed :] 

His Excellency General Washington. 

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham June 4th 1780. 
Sir 

Since writeing yesterday I ha\ e received the enclosed letter and 
paper from New York forwarded by a person I believe to be a real 
friend. The person who handed me the enclosed informs me that a 
party from Staten Island were in Elizabeth Town last night and 
carried of a number of horses to the Island. 

I have the honor to be your Excellency's Most obedt. Humble 
servant 

Ellas D.ayton. 
[Addressed :] 

His Excellency General Washington. 

FROM CAPTAIN WILLIAM SHUTE. 

[Addressed:] 

Colonel Ellas Dayton, 
Chatham. 
[By] Col. Shreeve. 

Jersey Camp Jany 8th, 1781. 
Dr. Colo:— 

Yours of the 31st Ultimo came to hand this evening by Major 
HoUinshead. 

My not acknowledging the receipt of the Continental Mare 
before this, must be imputed to forgetfullness: she has arriv'd and I 
flatter myself will answer every present purpose. 



Thr Dayton Letters 79 

Am very sorry the Beef ansvver'd not \our expectation, if it 
had, it would not of answer'd mine, but I assure you, it was the 
best in my possession. 

From the Fifty head since receiv'd, I little expect one {only) 
may be taken that will answer your purpose, he must be slaugiiter'd 
tomorrow as I have nothing for him to subsist on, two Quarters of 
which shall be laid aside for your use. 

Should be happy in complying with your requisition with re- 
spect to Candles, but I have not one on hand, neither have I receiv'd 
any since arriving in Jersey last; the first I procure shall be at your 
service. On receipt of this if no opportunity should offer to for- 
ward the flour to f:ii/,th. please to take the weight, and make use of it. 

I am Sir with respect, your hbe Servt. 

WiLLi.AM Shute. 



FROM COLONEL SYLVANUS SEELY. 

[Addressed : ] 

Colo. Dayton, 
Chatham. 
Dear Colo. 

I have Just time to inform you that we have received informa- 
tion that 60 Sail of Transports under convoy of the Rainbow and 
Confederacy Sail'd yesterday for London having on board the fleet 
allmost all the Navell Prisoners Officers and all. 

Gell. Arnold has arrived from Virginia with twenty five Sail 
of Transports with his Litehorse on board. — for the Purpose of 
Recruting them. — this may be relyed on. 

All the Troops on Staten Island have Certainly remained down 
to the flage Staff. 

I have the Honour To be with the Highest Esteem Your Most 
Obedent H St. 

S. Sely. 
Colo. Dayton. 

Jan th 11th 1781. 

All the British are absolutely on board and goeing on board. 
S. Arbethnot is comsarry of for the French fleet that Expected 



go History of Chatham 

[Indorsed on outside:] Wm. Jones. Jno. Coningham. Wm. 
Jibbs & Saml Gra\; Cosat A sergeant who is a british dester [de- 
serter] six weeks or 2 months since attempted to go to the enemy by 
way of Amboy. 

FROM CAPTAIN NATHANIEL LEONARD. 

[Addressed:] 

Colo Dayton 
Chatham. 

Jersey Hutts 21st March: '81. 

Sir, 

Tomorrow morning I expect to set out for the purpose of re- 
cruting; Brunswick landing Bound brook & from thence to German- 
town, I mean to make my rout ; my party is Compleat except a fifer 
which I yet want, and as their is but one to the Regt at present, it 
cannot Suploy me, unless the Colo will see propper to let David 
Rogers of Mr. Shute's Comd return to Camp with the bearer; the 
Regt can then spare me Cremer, a fifer who is well aquainted in the 
Nabour hood ware I am going and may be of singelar service to the 
party, money I have not as yet but expect it on my arrival at one 
of the above mentioned places. 

I am Sir your Very He servant 

N. Leonard. 

Colo Dayton. 
[Indorsed:] From Capt. Leonard, March 81, Recruiting. 

FROM CAPTAIN WILLIAM SHUTE. 

[Addressed:] 

Colonel Elias Dayton 
Chatham. 

Jersey Camp 11th. June, 1781. 

Sir, 

Agreable to your directions I waited on Doct Little who col- 
lected Six horsemen, whom together with himself accompanied me 
the rout directed by you. Benjamin Sweeny was not at home, & 
from the best accounts I cannot suppose he had been in that Quarter 
since Saturday morn, at Sharps I call'd next, who lives this side of 



The Dayton Lkttkrs Si 

Wisers Mills, he was not at home tho expected every minute; I pro- 
ceeded to the Tavern near one Mile farther at: which place we 
tarried to refresh, and cmpIoyVl a person of that neighborhood to 
watch his return home, but to none effect, from this Tavern I pro- 
ceeded with two horsemen on Schuyle's Mountain for the lli^U 
Dutcher by name Philip Terrabarrier, found the description of his 
situation very accurate, tho he possitively denies the charge, on m\ 
[paper torn] to the valley Doct Little had heard nothing of Sharp; as 
it was evident he was in the neighborhood 1 did not like to return 
without him, and as Doct Little was acquainted with the 
family, I begg'd of him alone to u-ait on Mrs. Sharp & prevail on 
her to inform him where her husband was, whicli he did, and by 
assuring her he wanted Sharp for an evidence, & by depositing his 
arms m her desk, she consented to shew him the ua\- to her husband 
through a thick wood and over a Mountain— before examing Sharp 
I found he had been with the Horse Thieves at one Bartum Beams 
on fo.x hill, altho I had not his name on the list I thought proper 
to take him with the others, on our return to black River about 2 
o'clock this morning I surrounded old McSweeny's house in hopes 
of finding Benj. at home, but was disappointed ; I gave the old gentle- 
man to understand that his son Caleb was the person I wanted. 
Col D'Hart knows nothing of the Prisoners nor of the Person 
to support the charges, & expects y,ni will order them, as you think 
necessary. Sharp I have put in Irons,— the other two appear to be 
mofifensive creatures, and considerably aged, this is all the paper 
I can procure. 

I am Sir with respect your very hbl Sert 

William Shutk. 

FROM LIEUTENANT SAMUEL SEELY. 

[Addressed:] 

Colo Dayton 

Comdt 2 B G 

_ ^ , Hackinsack. 

Dear Colo. 

As I thought it very necessary that \(,u should have the earlyest 
information — 



82 History of Chatham 

1 took the liberty to inform you and I believe from good Author- 
ity, that a fleet anchored Day before Yesterday at the Hook and is 
Generally supposed to be Lord Cornwallis's From Virginia, there is 
four thousand Troops on board, it is reported more, but I believe 
from what I can gather, there is no more than the above mentioned 
Number. Some say from the west Indies this you can put your 
own construction on. 

this day I saw william day, who will see you tomorrow three 
Oclock in the afternoon. 

I am with Capt. Outwatter and shall remain with him untill 
the Colo shall come down, or send. 

Your H St 

Saml Seely. 

Hackinsack, 
July the 27th. 1781. 

[Indorsed:] Permit the bearer to pass to camp and pass the Guards 
at any time of night. 

Saml. Seely Lieut. 

1st Jersey Regt. 

FROM ELISHA BOUDINOT. 

[Addressed :] 

Col. Elias Dayton 
Chatham 

Hanover 22d. Deer. 1781. 
Dear Sir. 

The Bearer Mr. H. B. desires me to write you on a particular 
Subject relative to him. He has been my Neighbour for some time, 
he is a Man of considerable Property, and far above the stile of the 
generalty of those employed in that Way, and which made me sur- 
prized at his making any offers of that kind. I have always found 
him a kind and an oblidging Neighbour. His Character in a political 
Way has not escaped the Tongue of Slander, but supposing him 
even to have traihd which is the most that has been said, yet his 
property is a sufficient Tie of his Attachment, and his Connections 
are such (from his Information) that I should think every good use 
might be made of him, and he is capable of Observation & distinguish- 
ing Circumstances, which you cannot often meet with. 



The Davtox Letters s^ 

Mrs. Boudinot desires her best Compliments to Mrs. Da\ton 
and if good Sleighing, We should be happy to see vou next Week^ and 
in that Case shall e.xpect it, and if you come in the Morning, it' will 
render it less fatiguing to Mrs. Dayton. 

I am sir with Esteem 



Col. Dayton. 



Yours most Obt Servt 

Elisha Boudinot. 



FROM CAPTAIN ROBERT NICHOLS. 

[Addressed:] 
Coll. Dayton 
Chatham. 
Dr. Coll, 
Sir: 

You will pleas to Recolect that after Mv Return from 
Philadelphia on the Unhappy Affair of Caleb Bruen that I Ac- 
quainted you that the Grand Dificultv With the Marques Mr 
Peter's Presedent of the Bord of War, Govenor Reed & Genl Potter 
Vice President of the Council War b,^ What Means We should get 
the Enemy To make the first offer of Exchange As thev did not hold 
Bruen as a prisoner of War, but all as one gave their word in Case 
such purposel Could be obtained from the Other Side if theay ware 
not Directly Repugnant To All Rules of War they 'would Do all 
in their power To Efect an Exchange, Now Sir you know Best 
Whether you Can help him or not. I am sencable of your feelings 
for Poor Bruen & Need not Say any thing To Excite you there- 
unto, but with Respect Remain your Huml Servt. 

RoBT Nichols. 
Newark 30th Deer 1781. 

Coll Dayton 
Chatham 

P. S: 

Enclosed I send the Certificate I Obtained from the Marques 
Chuse Rather you should keep it than myself if you Please. 



84 History of Chatham 

DRAFT OF A LETTER FROM 

COLONEL DAYTON TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

[This draft is not signed. It formerly belonged to Rev. Dr. Sprague 
of Albany, N. Y., an early collector of autograph letters, by whom it is 
indorsed; "The within is the writing of Genl. Elias Dayton."] 

Chatham Feby 8th. 1782. 

Sir 

I have received the letter which contained your E.xcellency's 
orders for the releif of the garrison at Wyoming. I expected the 
N. york line would have been ordered to releive them but as your 
Excellency is pleased to order it othcrways I would ask permission 
to releive the officers only as the men at that place are fit for garrison 
duty and no other. I have therefore delayed the marching of the 
men until further orders. I have reason to beleive the men at 
Wyoming will be contented to remain with a new set of officers. I 
have at this time about one hundred men at Eliz Town and Newark 
which number I thought necessary (during the severe frost) to pre- 
vent the robers from the other side plundering & abusing the friends 
to the states, they have had a very good effect, we have made prison- 
ers one Doctor two Negroes & four privates, & killed one. I have 
had one rase after a party of them on the salt Marsh for two miles I 
got one black k 1 white prisoners & took from thein eight sleds loaded 
with hay. The matter with respect to flags I expect will be settled 
at least so far as respects Mr. Skiners negotiations, but Skinner has 
been absent at Goshen this week or more, enclosed is the particular 
cantoonments of the troops in N. Y. & vicinity, handed ine by a good 
man. 

I have also an accurate map of the fortifications at Brooklyn 
given me by the same person but will take a safer opportunity of 
conveyance. We have had from three to six deserters from the 
enemy every day since the river has been froze. 

[Indorsed:] Copy sent Gl. Washington Febr. 8: 1782. 



The Dayton Letters g^ 

FROM COLONEL ISRAEL SHREVE. 

[Addressed:] 

Colonel Elias Dayton 

Commandin the Jersey line 

at Chatham. 

Burlington County 24th. Feby 1782 
Sir 

The bearer George McDonald Quarter Master Serjant to your 
Regiment claims his Discharge for the following reasons,— in the 
year 1776 he Served in the 4th Virginia Regt: as a Serjant, in Janu- 
ary following he came to me (his time being out) and desired me to 
recommend him for an Ensigncy in my Regt: the Regt. being full of 
Officers that failed. I Advised him to Inlist untill a Vacancy should 
happen, which for some time he declined, saying he could git a Com- 
mission in the Pennsylvania line, which I believed to be true as that 
Line was not near full, but as he had lived with me from nine years 
of age untill he was 22, he chose to be with me, upon my promiseing 
him a Commission the f^rst Vacancy, If agreeable to the Officers of 
the Corps, he agreed to Inlist upon the following Conditions, to be 
Quarter Master Serjant untill promoted, But If that should fail to 
Serve three years (unless I should sooner Leave the Service), and 
If I continued he to have his Discharge any time after three years 
Service when he should Claim it. I then filled up a printed Enlist- 
ment for the war haveing no other by me, he he.sitated to Sign it 
untdl I asured him it would make no Difference, and made not the 
least Doubt but he would be Commissioned the f^rst Vacancy, and If 
that Should fail it would always be in my power to Discharge him.— 
his being promoted has failed, he Claimed his Discharge at Pompton 
huts a Little before the Revolt, I put him off untill I Left the Service 
not Chuseing to do any thing that Should incur Censure, (notwith- 
standmg all Some unprincipled officers Was pleased to falsly Assert) 
in June last McDonold petitioned the assembly on the Occasion (as 
he was Circumstanced Somewhat Different from others). I ^^•as 
Called upon for Information, which I give as near as may be to what 
I have here wrote, the Members of the Assembly was unanimously 
of Opmion that he Ought to be Discharged, but was at a Loss to fall 
upon any mode for that purpose, without Involving in much Diffi- 
culty. It was thought best to Inform the commanding Officer of the 



86 History of Chatham 

Regiment, as it Seemed to Lay with him. the Campaighn Just then, 
beginning to be Active It was not Done, the above are facts which I 
am ready to testify to If Required. 

I am Sir with Respect your Most Obdt. Servt. 

Israel Shreve. 
Colonel Dayton. 

DRAFT OF .'\ LETTER FROM 

COLONEL DAYTON TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

[In handwriting of Captain Jonathan Dayton.] 

Chatham. May 14th. 1782. 
Sir, 

I have received your Excellency's letter of the 7th. with the 
proceedings of a court martial enclosed, which proceedings the court 
were of opinion from the nature of the oath they had taken, they 
could not communicate to any person until the Commander in 
chief's pleasure should be known, they therefore dispatched them 
to Head Quarters without my knowledge. When your Excellency 
returned them to me the first time I pointed out to the President 
the improprieties in them and desired him to assemble the court, to 
reconsider and revise them, they did so and sent them off a second 
time without my knowledge for the same reason as before. Under 
these circumstances therefore I conceive that I cannot be censured 
for the misconduct and inattention of the court in a matter which 
could not have come within my notice. 

Your Excellency's apprehensions that the Jersey line have been 
so much neglected as to be unprepared for the field gave me no small 
degree of pain. I am however very happy that an ofKcial report of 
their appearance and situation is before this made by Colonel Stewart 
which I flatter myself will quiet your Excellency's apprehensions, to 
which I am compelled to observe, illnatured reports and misinforma- 
tions must have given rise. The report of this gentleman will, I 
hope create in your Excellency a more favorable opinion of the zeal 
of the officers of the Jersey line, who are, I am confident exceedingly 
soUicitous to demean themselves in such a manner as may in every 
instance meet the approbation of their commander. 



Captain Jonathan Dayton 87 

I have just received the orders for preventing all communica- 
tion with the enemy by Hags, which your Excellency may be as- 
sured shall be most strictly obeyed. The following was extracted 
from a London paper of the 2nd. of April and forwarded to me 
thro' a private channel, I thought it very proper that I should 
transmit it to your Excellency that you might place such reliance 
upon it as your E.xcellency should think just . . . "[„ last 
Thursday's Council the fjrst of the new administration, the ex- 
pediency of the immediate removal of the chief part of the British 
army from the Continent of North America was the onlv matter of 
miportance debated; when the Cabinet came to an unanimous re- 
solve of ordering the Garrisons of New York & Charlestown to be 
evacuated & the troops to be embarked for St. Lucia & Barbadoes 
under the convoy of the whole British fleet which will be ordered to 
sail from the West Indies for their protection previous to the setting 
in of the Hurricane season, towards the middle of summer. The 
necessary transports are now providing for the above service The 
Garrisons of Halifax & Quebec are still to be held & strongly re- 
inforced." 

The last letters I forwarded from Sir Henrv Clinton to vour 
E.xcellency had been fjve days in my possession, & could not have 
been sent on sooner unless a man had been hired for that particular 
purpose. 

[Indorsed:] Copy sent Gl. ^Vashi^gton i\Lay 14th. 82. 



CAPTAIN JONATHAN DAYTON. 

Jonathan Dayton, the general's eldest son, was also a 
soldier ot the Revolution. He was born in Elizabeth 
October 1 6, 1760, graduated from Princeton College in 
1776, and durmg the same year was commissioned ensign in 
h,s father's regiment, the Third New Jersey. A few months 
later he became regimental paymaster; was promoted to the 
rank of lieutenant in 1777, and to that of captain-lieutenant 
in 1779. Dunng the latter year he was appointed aide-de- 
camp to General Sullivan with the rank of major, on the 
expedition against the western Indians. He was commis. 



88 History of Chatham 

sioned captain in the Ihird New Jersey, of which his father 
was still the colonel, in March, 1780; was taken prisoner at 
Elizabeth in the following October, but was exchanged soon 
afterwards, and served in the army until the end of the war. 

At frequent times during the Revolution, notably while 
the Dayton family resided in the neighborhood of Chatham, 
the captain was accustomed to act as his father's secretary; 
and military letters are still extant which were signed by 
Colonel Dayton, though written by the hand of Jonathan. 

After the war Captain Dayton took a prominent part 
in the affairs of the State and nation. He was elected to the 
Assembly, and was speaker of that body in 1790. He 
represented New Jersey in the convention of 1787 for the 
formation of a Federal constitution. He was elected to 
Congress in 1791, and served four terms in the House of 
Representatives, being speaker from 1795 to 1799; and 
from 1799 until 1815 was a member of the United States 
Senate. 

He was interested with John Cleve Symmes and others 
in the purchase and development of military lands in the 
Middle West, and the city of Dayton, Ohio, was named in 
his honor. While in the Senate he formed an intimate 
friendship with Aaron Burr, and became involved in the 
latter's scheme of empire without realizing its pernicious 
nature. He loaned Burr money to forward the project, and 
was thus compromised with him in the charge of treason. 
Dayton's indictment was never tried, but his political career 
was blighted by this scandal. 

His death occurred on October 9, 1824. He is des- 
cribed as a man of impressive appearance and manners — 
a gentleman of the old school, who retained in his house- 
hold, dress and deportment the formality of Washington 
and Franklin. He was familiarly nicknamed "the last of the 
cocked hats."^ 

'Nelson's Biogr.Tphical Encyclopasdia of New Jersey, 82; Hatfield's 
Elizabeth, 662. 



Colonel SvLVANais Seely ^9 



COLONEL SYLVANUs SEELY 

The most distinsuishcil officer, and the one holding the 
highest rank in the Rcvohitionary army, who was a per- 
manent resident of Chatham, was Colonel Sylvaniis Seely, 
a veteran of the P>ench and Indian War. He was out- 
ranked, it is true, by Colonel Dayton, who, toward the close 
of the Revolution, was promoted brigadier; but for Day- 
ton, Chatham was merely a temporary place of residence, 
while Seely made the village his permanent home. 

During the Revolution Colonel Seely lived on the south- 
west corner of the highways now known as Main Street and 
Fairmount Avenue.' That he was a tavern keeper by 
occupation is affirmed by a well-established tradition, 
supported by advertisements of West Indian rum and French 
brandy which he occasionally inserted in the Nczv Jersey 
Journals In 1781; he bought at sheriff's sale a plot of 
twenty acres owned by Matthias Woodruff, extending from 
East Main Street to the Passaic, between the home of Foster 
Horton and the mill property: and tradition states that he 
kept a tavern upon this lot, standing on the south side of the 
road about i;oo feet west of the river.' 

Colonel Seely seems to have commenced his career in 
the Revolution as a captain of militia. His name first 

' Erskine's Army Maps, No. 75-.^, in library of the New York Historical 
Society. 

"The following advertisement indicates that he resided in Chatham as 
early as 1774; 

Notice is hereby given to the creditors of William Jinings, late of 
Morris-Town, that they are desired to bring in their accounts at the house 
of Sylvanus Sealy, tavern-keeper, at Chatham, in Morris-County, on the 
30th day of this instant, where due attendance will be given, at 10 o'clock in 
the morning, by us. 

Jonathan Stiles, 
Philip V. Cortland, 
Abraham Canfield, 

Auditors. 
Morris-County, August 6th, 1774. 

— Dintlap's Pennsylvania Packet, August 1$, 1774. 

■'Morris County Record of Deeds, .A. 135; Gardner's Historical Dis- 
course, 7. 



go History of Chatham 

appears in the muster rolls as a captain in the battalion 
known as "Heard's brigade," receiving his commission on 
June 14, 1776,' though he held the rank, for several months 
prior to that date. He was ambitious to command a com- 
pany of Continental troops, and to this end he presented 
the following recommendation to the New Jersey Provincial 
Congress, which was read before that august body on 
February 7, 1776. As the village of Chatham lay on both 
sides of the dividing line between the townships of Morris 
and Hanover (in the former of which he resided) he caused 
the petition to be signed by the authorities of both muni- 
cipalities, thinking by that means to make it doubly 
efficacious; but his hope was not realized, so far as the public 
records show. 

Gentlemen 

The Bearer Hereof Capt Seely an Inhabitant of this Town- 
ship & a Capt of Militia under the provincial Congress, being a 
Stranger to your Board & desirous of raising a Company to serve 
in the continental Service, has requested of this Committee a Recom- 
mendaticn. In consequence of which we beg Leave to recommend 
him to you, & to say in his Favour that he is an Honest Man firmly 
attached to the Liberties of his Country, & a ALan who from his 
former Services for two years in the last War has approved himself 
a Man of Courage k Resolution, & therefore we deem him fit & 
worthy of Holding a Capt's Commission in the above Service, & fo 
assure you that we doubt not but he would raise a Company in a 
Short Time. 

Signed by Order of the Committee of the Township of Morris. 

Jabez Campfield, Clark. 

Morris Town Feby 5 1776 
To the President & Members of 
the provincial Congress of the 
Province of New Jersey 

We the committee of the Township of hanover haveing perused 

'Strvker's Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolution, 355. 



Colonel Sylvanus Seely 91 

the above Recommendation and Do approve of the same and Recom- 
mend him accordingly. 

Signed bj- Order. 

Matthew BuRNirr Chmrman: 

Colonel Seely afterwards served as captain in the 
Eastern Battalion of Morris County militia. He was com- 
missioned first major of this organization on May 23, 1777, 
and became its colonel on the 13 th of the following Novem- 
ber.- He is referred to in Symmes' biographical sketch of 
Colonel Oliver Spencer as having assisted the latter in the 
capture of nearly 100 mounted Waldeckers in a skirmish 
near Springfield^— doubtless the encounter which was 
reported in the Pcnnsyl-cania Evcn'nuj Post of January 23, 
1777, as occurring on the 5th of that month, and resulting in 
the death of 8 or 10 Waldeckers and the capture of the re- 
maining 39 or 40, wath two officers, by a force not superior 
in number, without sustaining the least damage. 

But Seely is chiefly remembered as the colonel of a 
battalion of State troops, for it was in this capacity that his 
most active and important services were rendered. This 
position he held from 1779* until (probably) the close of 
the Revolution. Much of his correspondence with the civil 
and military authorities is still extant, and indicates that he 
was engaged for a considerable time during the later years 
of the war in endeavoring to prevent intercourse between the 
tories of New Jersey and the British in New York and on 
Staten Island. Besides carrying information to the enemy, 
the loyalists were extensively engaged in "London trading'' 
as it was called, which consisted of buying from the English 
certain articles which had been declared contraband, and 

' Papers of the Provincial Congress, No. 96, in library of the New 
Jersey Historical Society. 



3 V 



Stryker's Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolution, 355. 
New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings, Ser. 2, 253 (1SS6). 
'New Jersey Archives, Ser. 2, IV, 6. 



92 History of Chatham 

smuggling the goods within the American hnes, where they 
could be sold at a handsome profit. This nefarious business 
was strictly forbidden under severe penalties. A letter 
written by Governor Livingston to General Heath, dated 
September ii;, 1781, thus alludes to Seely's activities in 
checking this traffic: 

By the last returns I had of what we call our three months 
men, I doubt not the five hundred are by this time complete. They 
are under the command of Colic. Sylvanus Seely, whose head quar- 
ters are at Connecticut Farms, about four miles from Elizabeth 
Town, and about seven from Staten Island. From these he keeps 
constant outposts and pickets along the line, to prevent the incursions 
of the enemy, and to suppress the illicit infernal trade that is car- 
ried on with them. He cannot, I think, be more advantageously 
posted in any part of this State for either of these purposes; and we 
should be very unhappy to think that he should be ordered out of it, 
not only because the men are expressly raised upon General Wash- 
ington's requisition, grounded upon his professed design to attack 
New York, but also because, not being able to complete our quota 
from the militia, I ordered several companies of our State regiment 
there on those lines, and raised for the very purpose of defending our 
frontiers, to join him; and which accordingly now make a consider- 
able part of his corps. While they remain on their present station, 
they will, I hope, prove sufficient to repel any excursions made by 
the enemy's partizan parties, and that you will in case of greater 
force endeavor on reasonable notice to succour and support the 
militia according to your kind promise, for which I acknowledge 
myself under the greatest obligations to you.^ 

During the winter of 1779-80 charges of dereliction 
were preferred against Colonel Seely, upon which he was 
tried by court-martial; but the accusations were not sus- 
tained. The records do not tell us where the inquiry took 
place, beyond the bare statement that the proceedings were 
held at Chatham; but there is little doubt that the court sat 

'Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Ser. 7, V, 255. 



Colonel Svlvanus Sf.elv 



93 



in one of the taverns of the village. Following are resolu- 
tions of the Legislative Council (corresponding to the 
present State Senate) of P'ebruary 25, 1780: 

A message was received from the House of Assembly by Mr. 
Sharp and Mr. Foster, in Words following: 

Whereas His Excellency the Governor has laid before the Legis- 
lature sundry Charges exhibited against Sylvanus Seeley, Colonel of 
the First Regiment of Militia in the County of Morris, and re- 
quested their Determination as to the Mode of Trial, whether by 
Impeachment or by a Court Martial. 

Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to 
call a Court Martial as soon as possible for the Trial of Colonel 
Sylvanus Seeley. 

Resolved, That the Legislature will make Provision for the 
Payment of all reasonable and necessary Expenses of the Members, 
Witnesses and others necessary attending at such Court; and that 
His Excellenc) be requested to lay an Account of the same before the 
Legislature for that Purpose, as soon as possible after they are in- 
curred. 

Ordered, That Mr. Sharp and Mr. Foster do carry the above 
Resolution to the Council, and request their concurrence therein. 

March 3, 1780. 

The Council having taken into Consideration the Message of 
the House of Assembly of the 25th. of last month, relative to re- 
questing the Governor to call a Court Martial for the Trial of 
Colonel Seeley ; 

Resolved, That the House concur in the Resolution therein 
contained. 

Ordered, That Mr. Ogden do wait on the House of Assembly 
and acquaint them therewith. 

Mr. Ogden reported that he had obeyed the Order of the 
House. 

In compliance with the resolutions of the Council, 
Governor Livingston issued a proclamation in these terms: 



i 



94 History of Chatham 

A General court-martial of the State, of which Col. Neilson is 
appointed President, is ordered to sit at Chatham, on the 27th. in- 
stant. Colonels Freelinghuysen and Van Dyck, Lieut. Colonels 
Jacob Crane and Benoni Hathaway, Majors William Davison and 
Joseph Lindley, and Captains Peter Latham, Daniel Cook, Garven 
M'Koy, Stephen Monson, Joseph Beech, and James Kean, are ap- 
pointed members. Mr. Wilcocks is appointed to act as Judge Advo- 
cate of this court. 

By order of his Excellency Governor Livingston. April lO, 1780.^ 

The judgment of the court was thus confirmed by a 
subsequent proclamation of Governor Livingston: 

By His Excellency the Governor. 
A General Court-Martial of the state, whereof Col. John 
Neilson was appointed President, having been ordered by the Gov- 
ernor for the trial of Col. Sylvanus Seely, on the 27th. day of April 
last, on the following charges against him while commanding the 
State Regiment in Elizabeth-Town, in the latter end of the year 

1779, viz. 

1. That he suffered goods and merchandise to be landed from 
the enemy's flag-boat within our lines, thereby permitting an illicit 
trade to be carried on between the inhabitants of this state and the 

enemy. 

2. That he suffered those who came with a flag, some of whom 
were fugitives from this state, frequently to tarry all night on shore 
without any necessity, giving them an opportunity to hold confer- 
ences with the disaffected inhabitants, to gain intelligence, transact 
commercial affairs, and promote desertions from our troops. 

3. That he partook of this illicit trade himself, having goods taken 
out of the flag-boat and carried to his quarters. 

4. That of his own authority he gave permission to persons to 
go to the enemy, either to stay with them or return; and also gave 
permits to persons of suspected characters to pass his guards, who 
carried provisions to the enemy. 

5. That he authorized privates in the regiment to exercise com- 

" New Jersey Archives, Ser. 2, IV, 297. 



Colonel Sylvanus Seely 9^ 

mand, and to rank and draw pay as officers, contrary to the consti- 
tution of the state, the law for raising the said regiment, to the 
damage and expense of the state. 

And the said Court ha\'ing met and proceeded to the trial of 
the said Col. Seeley, upon the several charges aforesaid, pronounced 
their sentence or judgment, by which they unanimously declare, 
"that the said Col. Sylvanus Seel)- is not guilty of any one or more 
of the said charges, but on the contrary, that during his command at 
Elizabeth-Town, he is entitled to the character of a good soldier, a 
vigilant officer, and faithful citizen, and as such deserves the grati- 
tude of his country"; which sentence or judgment I do approve of. 

Trenton, 27th. May, 1780.^ ^'l- Livingston. 

In the Proceedings of the Legislative Council and of the 
General Assembly mention is made of certain expenses in- 
curred In this matter, which were ordered paid by the State 
treasurer. 

4th. To William Wilcocks, Esquire, for Expences and Fees as 
Judge Ad\-ocate, at the Trial of Colonel Sylvanus Seeley, by a Court- 
Martial held by Order of the Legislature in May last, £546.13. 

5th. To William Campfield for Expences for himself and 
Horse, going Express to notify Witnesses to attend the Trial of 
Colonel Seeley, in May last, £37.10. 

6th. To Colonel John Neilson for the Use of himself and the 
Members of the Court-Martial appointed for the Trial of Colonel 
Sylvanus Seeley, in May last, £1875. 

During the following year Colonel Seely presided at a 
court-martial in Chatham for the trial of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Jacob Crane, Captain Isaac Gillam and Lieutenant John 
Burnet, all of whom were officers of the Essex County 
militia, though Crane and Gillam also served for a time with 
the State troops. The finding of the court is thus set forth 
in a proclamation of Governor Livingston, published in the 
New Jersey Journal on December 26, 1781 : 

' New Jersey Archives, Ser. 2, IV, 402. 



96 History of Chatham 

By His Excellency the Governor. 

Head Quarters, Trenton, December 14, 1781. 

At a General Court Martial, whereof Colonel Silvanus Seely 
was President, held at Chatham, the twenty-third day of October 
last, by order of his Excellency the Governor, and continued by sev- 
eral adjournments, Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Crane was tried upon 
the following charges : 

1st. That he traded with the enemy when commanding officer 
at Elizabeth Town in the year 1780. 

2d. That he allowed others to trade witii the enemy while com- 
manding officer at the same place, in the year aforesaid. 

3d. That he was so disguised with liquor when on Staten Island, 
under the command of General Dickenson, as to be wholly unfit for 
duty, and also at other times, when commanding officer at Eliza- 
bethtown in 1780. 

4th. For unofficerlike behavior in an attack of a party of 
Refugees in Elizabeth Town, with a superior force under his com- 
mand. 

The court having maturely deliberated upon the evidences, are 
of opinion, and do accordingly find, that Lieutenant Colonel Jacob 
Crane is guilty of the first and second charges; and that the said 
Colonel Crane is not guilty of the first part of the third charge nor 
of the fourth charge. 

And the said Court do sentence the said Lieutenant Colonel 
Crane to be publickly repremanded by his Excellency the Governor. 

By the same Court Martial was tried Captain Isaac Gillam, 
upon the following charges: 

1st. For a neglect of duty in a variety of instances. 

1. In staying a great part of his time since his late appoint- 
ment in the twelve months' service of the state, at home. 

2. In going home and continuing there several days and 
nights when he knew that a number of vessels were coming 
up Newark bay, towards Newark, and had got to the mouth 
of the river. 

3. In drawing provisions for himself and men without hav- 
ing the proper necessary returns, or knowing how many 
men he had on duty, or in town. 



Colonel Sylvan rs Ski' lv 



97 



4. In not calliiic; the muster-roll, or knowing who appeared 
on the parade and did duty. 

5. In not sending out patrols, or placing Gentries, and not 
visiting them when placed. 

2d. For giving unnecessary and unreasonable furloughs to his 
men. 

3d. For not supporting authority and discipline in his company. 
4th. For ungentlemanly and unofficerlike behavior to Lieutenant 
Burnet. 

5th. For giving permission to a number of persons to go into and 
return from the enemy's lines. 

6th. For encouraging, protecting and supporting the illicit trade 
and intercourse with the enemy; and, for the sake of a bribe, releas- 
ing and discharging a quantity of goods seized by some of his men, on 
the way from the enem)''s lines, by which means the state is deprived 
of a considerable sum of money, and the punishment of offenders 
evaded. 

The following two charges were made by the court. 
7th. For leaving his company when on it's march to Dobb's 
Ferry in the month of August last, without permission. 

8th. That before and on the march of the said company to 
Dobb's Ferry, the said Captain Gillam did begin and excite a mutiny ; 
and that at the same time and place he did join in a mutiny; and 
that also knowing of an intended mutiny, he did not, without delay, 
give information thereof to any superior or commanding officer, nor 
endeavor to suppress the same. 

The court having maturely considered the evidence offered on 

the several charges against Captain Isaac Gillam do find him of the 

first charge guilty in the fourth instance. 

In the first instance not guilty. 

second ditto not guilty. 

third ditto not guilty. 

fifth ditto not guilty. 

Of the second charge not guilty. 

third ditto guilty. 

fourth ditto guilty. 

fifth ditto guilty. 

sixth ditto guilty. 



98 History of Chatham 

seventh ditto not guilty, 
eighth ditto guilty. 

And it is adjudged by the same court that the said Captain Isaac 
Gillam be deprived of all and every military commission which he 
holds in the service of this State. 

And by the same Court Martial was tried Lieutenant John 
Burnet, upon the following charges: 

1st. For disobeying the orders of Captain Isaac Gillam, his 
superior officer. 

2d. For giving the soldiers of the said Captain's company 
strong liquor, to induce them to sign a paper which tended to en- 
courage a mutiny. 

3d. For ordering said soldiers to mutiny. 

4th. For neglect of duty in suppressing the illicit trade with 
the enemy. 

5th. For refusing to deliver up the muster roll to Captain 
Gillam. 

6th. For abusing the character of the said Captain Gillam. 
The court having considered the evidence, do find Lieutenant 
Burnet of the 

First charge guilty. 

Second ditto guilty. 

Third ditto not guilty. 
Fourth ditto not guilty. 
Fifth ditto guilty. 

Sixth ditto not guilt>'. 

And the said Court do sentence the said Lieutenant John Burnet 
to be cashiered. 

The Governor having duly considered the evidence produced to 
the said Court Martial, and the several sentences and acquittals of 
the same, approves of and confirms the sentence and adjudication of 
the said Court against Captain Isaac Gillam (whose several ofifenses 
do not admit of the least palliation, and which he could not have 
imagined that any officer of the militia of this state would have 
stained his character or disgraced his country) and orders the same 
to take place accordingly. 

Relative to the sentence passed by the said Court on Lieutenant- 
Colonel Jacob Crane, he thinks it more favorable than an officer 



Colonel Sylvan us Seely 



99 



of his rank had reason to expect for so atrocious a crime as that of 
trading with the enemy, and allowing others to trade with them (an 
offense not only extremely injurious to his country, which had reposed 
so great confidence in him, but which it was an essential part of his 
duty and a grand object of the post he occupied to suppress) and for 
which, as well as for the other offense proved against him, he is hereby 
publicly reprimanded. 

With respect to the sentence passed by the said Court on Lieu- 
tenant John Burnet, it is with great regret that the Governor 
finds that an officer who has distinguished himself for his zeal and 
activity in the service of his country, should so far forget the absolute 
necessity of maintaining subordination and discipline as to disobey 
the orders of his superior officer, and whatever allowance may be 
made for the precipitation of youth, or personal provocations offered, 
the public interest indispensably requires so pernicious an example 
to be uniformly discountenanced, and he therefore approves of and 
confirms the sentence passed by the said Court Martial on the said 
Lieutenant John Burnet, and orders the same to take place accord- 
ingly. 

WiL Livingston. 

The Gillam court-martial is mentioned in the Condit 
Genealogical Notes described in a preceding chapter. It is 
briefly referred to by Joseph Lyon, from whose pension 
affidavit Dr. Condit copied the following statement: 

Enlisted for a year under Capt. Neale who resigned before the 
Co. was filled up &: Gillam was elected Capt. in his stead & Lyon 
served the whole year under him. Gillam never headed his Co at 
all, was accused of being coward by Lieut. Burnet & Shea. Burnet 
took command. Gillam was tried by C. Mart at Chatham & broke. 

Colonel Seely married Jane . He had three 

sons and four daughters, namely: John Willl-xmson; 

Thom.-\s Jones, who married Hannah ; George E. ; 

SrsANNA, married Solomon Moore; Sophia, married 
James, son of Captain Enos Ward of Chatham; Eleanor, 
married Howell; and Elizabeth, married Eliph- 



loo History of Chatham 

alet, son of Ephraim Miller of Smalley's Bridge, Somerset 
County, N. J. 

After his marriage Mr. Miller resided in Chatham, on the 
south side of East Main Street, west of the home of Jacob Morrell. 
On May 27, 1811, he married Mary, daughter of Isaac Beach of 
Troy, N. J. By his first wife he had children: Christopher 
Seely; Benjamin Franklin; Cornelia Eliza. 

Colonel Seely liv'ed in Chatham for many years after 
the close of the Revolutionary War, eventually removing 
to Pennsylvania. John Littell, in his Genealogies of the 
First Settlers of Passaic Valley, states that he "went to the 
Beech Woods" with David Oakley. In 1810 he was living 
in Bethany, Pa., where he owned a grist- and saw-mill, and 
he died there on March 28, 1821^ 

'Will of Sylvanus Seely, probated in Wayne County, Pa.; Littell's 
Passaic Valley Genealogies, 293, 305, 462; Palladium of Liberty, June 11, 
1811, August 12, 1813; Morris County Record of Deeds, S. 453. 

The following advertisement appeared in the Nriu Jersey Journal of 
January 3, 1804: To be sold on reasonable terms or exchanged for property 
in Essex or Morris County, A part or whole of 5000 acres of valuable land 
situated in the waters of Lackawanna Creek which is navigable for rafting 
limber to Philadelphia. For information apply to Mrs. Seely at Chatham, 
N. J., or to Capt. John Howell, or to the subscriber on the premises in Wayne 
Co., Pa. 

SYLVANUS SEELY. 



CHAPTER V 

Biographical— Dr. Peter Smith— Rev. Hezekiah Smith— Rev. 
James Caldwell. 



D 



DR. PETER SMITH. 

R. PETER SMITH, an eminent physician of Chat- 
ham, and a surgeon in the Revoltuionary army, was a 
son of Peter Smith, Jr., one of the early residents of Hemp- 
stead, L. I.^ According to one biographer of the family, his 
mother was Rebecca Vanderpool of Albany, N. Y.,' but by 
the weight of authority she was Rebecca Nichols, eldest child 
of Isaac Nichols, 3d., of Milford, Connecticut.^ 

The marriage of Peter Smith, Jr., and Rebecca Nichols 
was performed at Hempstead in 1732. At a later date they 
made their home in Hanover, N. J. Their children, whose 
names often occur in the Revolutionary history of eastern 
New Jersey, were probably born at Hempstead. They 
were : 

1. Jacamiah, married Phebe . He kept a tavern at Con- 
necticut Farms in colonial and early Revolutionary days, but in 
1781 was located in Elizabeth, where his hotel was the starting point 
of the Philadelphia stages. He took an active interest in public 
affairs, and was at one time colonel of tiie Elizabethtown troops. 

2. Uriah, married Abigail Allen of Hanover. He was a 
farmer of Northfield, N. J. 

3. Hezekiah, of whom more hereafter. 

4. Obadiah, married . He was a farmer of Canoe 

Brook, now Livingston, N. J. 

'Torrey's Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols, 11. 

'Guild's Chaplain Smith and the Baptists, 21. 

'Torrey's Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols, supra. 



I02 History of Chatham 

5. Sarah, married Epaphras Cook, a farmer living between 
Livingston and Hanover. He subsequently moved with his family 
to New York, residing in Wooster Street. 

6. Mary, married Samuel Ellison, a farmer who lived near 
Chatham. His farm lay on the Morris Turnpike in Millburn 
Township, and now forms part of the property of the Canoe Brook 
Country Club. His residence stood near the main entrance of the 
club, about half a mile east of Chatham bridge. 

7. Peter, the subject of this sketch. 

8. Catherine.^ 

The farm which Mr. Smith purchased upon his re- 
moval to New Jersey Hes on the road leading from Hanover 
to Florham Park. It is known as the Meeker farm, having 
been owned for many years by the late Carnot and William 
Meeker. It is now the property of Carnot M. Ward. The 
Smith residence is said to have stood near the site of the 
Meeker barn." Mr. Smith offered the property for sale, by 
advertisement inserted in the New York Journal or General 
Advertiser of April 20, 1769, describing it as a tract of 360 
acres on Passaic River, with a dwelling house almost new, 
situated on an eminence commanding a pleasant prospect, a 
large barn, two young orchards, 100 acres of wheat land 
and 50 acres suitable for hemp; the property lying 13 miles 
from Newark, 18 from Elizabethtown, and within half a 
mile of Mr. Green's meeting house, having reference to the 
Hanover Presbyterian church, of which Rev. Jacob Green 
was then the pastor.* 

Mr. Smith died January 16, 177 1, and was buried in 
the village cemetery at Hanover. After his death his wife 
resided with her children who had married and settled in 
the vicinity. She died at the home of her son Peter in 

'Torrey's Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols, 17-19; New 
Jersey Archives, Ser. 2, V. 188. 

'Torrey's Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols, 12. 

'New Jersey Archives, Ser. 1, XXVI, 416. He had previously adver- 
tised the property in T/te Neiv York Gazette and fVeekly Mercury of March 
7, I76i.— Ibid., 68. 



The Smith Family 103 

Chatham, November 4, 1788, and was interred beside her 
husband in the Hanover cemetery/ 

Dr. Peter Smith, the youngest son of Peter Smith, Jr., 
was born February 18, 1748, and died April 16, i8i8. He 
married on August 12, 1771, Susannah, daughter of Rev. 
Aaron Richards, who served for many years as pastor of 
the Presbyterian church of Rahway, and supplied the 
pulpit of the Madison church during the Revolution. She 
was born in 1756, and died October 20, 1785. His second 
wife, Phebe Potter, was a resident of Madison, and 
when the Potter farm was divided upon her father's death. 
Dr. Smith received a portion of the property. The farm 
consisted of several hundred acres, fronting upon the Con- 
vent Road (now Park Avenue), near the property of the 
late Edward V. Thebaud. Dr. Smith lived for a time in 
Madison, or Bottle Hill as It was then called, but a great 
part of his married life was spent In Chatham.^ At an early 
period of the Revolution he offered his services to his 
country In the following terms : 

To The Honourable Provincial Congress for New Jersey. 
Gentlemen 

I Should be fond of Engageing in the Continental Service for the 
Defence of American Liberty as a Surgeon. 

I am Gentlemen your Most Obedient Humble Servent 
Morris County Peter Smith. 

Jany 30, 1776. 

Recommended by the Following Gentlemen 
Jacob Morrell Nathl Bonnel 

Amos Potter Benjamin Bonnel 

David V: D: Pool Stephen Day 

Thomas Darling Matt: Wynans 

Jonen. Stiles Silvanus Seely 

Wm. Darling David Bruen 

John Roberts Jacamiah Smith 

Nath C. Martin.^ 

'Torrey's Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols 12 
-I hi J., 19. 

„. 'Papers of the Provincial Congress No. 90, in library of the N T 
Historical Society. , '"="■• J- 



I04 History of Chatham 

Dr. Smith was a man of means and Importance, and 
was considered one of the most skillful physicians in the 
State. He was described by his grandchildren as a quiet, 
dignified and reserved individual, whom they regarded with 
great veneration. He was one of three judges of the Court 
of Common Pleas which sat at Morristown twice a year, a 
fortnight at each term; and it is said that the doctor's 
opinion usually took precedence over that of his colleagues, 
for he was a fluent talker and could win anyone to his side 
with a few words. 

After the close of the Revolution, Dr. Smith decided, 
for reasons which are not now known, to remove to 
Flanders, N. J. There he resided until his death, but his 
interment was made in the cemetery at Madison, where his 
wife was also buried. From the advertisement which he 
inserted in the New Jersey Journal of Elizabeth, published 
March 14, 1792, when preparing to change his residence, we 
have the following description of his property: 

To be SOLD at PUBLIC VENDUE, On Saturday the 17th 
day of March, at J o'clock in the afternoon. 

The House and Lot of Land, whereon the subscriber lives, in 
Chatham, on the main road leading from Morris-Town to Elizabeth 
Town, containing about 3 acres of excellent land. The house is very 
convenient, containing six rooms, two fire-places, a good cellar, and 
a good garden, a well of water that never fails ; and on the premises 
is a good barn, and a shop, together with other buildings and a num- 
ber of fruit trees. It is an excellent stand for business, and would 

suit a silversmith, sadler, or shopjoiner as they are much wanted in 

the place. The conditions made known on the day of sale, and the 

payments' made easy to the purchaser, as the money is not wanted. 

Chatham, March 5, 1792. PETER SMITH. 



It appears, however, that Dr. Smith did not leave 
Chatham until three or four years later. 



The Smith Family 105 

Children of Dr. Peter Smith by his first marriage: 

1. Catherine, married Baldwin Wood of Spring Valley, N. J. 

2. Fanny, unmarried, who lived at Chatham with Charlotte 
Smith, widow of her brother Frederick. 

3. Elizabeth, b. April 18, 1778, d. July 25, 1849. While the 
family lived in Madison she was known as "the beauty of Bottle 
Hill." She married, April 0, 17^6, Jacob, son of David Vander- 
pool of Chatham. The marriage is said to have been hastened owing 
to her father's desire to remove to Flanders. Her husband was born 
May 6, 1776, and died December 1.^, 1856. He was a shoemaker by 
trade. After his marriage he built and occupied the house on East 
Main Street now owned by Mrs. Louise G. Collins; but soon after- 
wards removed with his family to New York, residing at 14 Cather- 
ine Street, where he opened a shoe store. At a later date he became 
a dealer in coal, eventually selling out to Jeremiah Skidmore, whose 
business is still conducted under the firm name of Jeremiah Skid- 
more 's Sons. Mr. Vanderpool was at one time an officer in the Cus- 
tom House at New York. 

4. William. 

5. Frederick C. H., b. April 24, 1781, d. May 31, 1809. 
Married, April 28, 1805, Charlotte, daughter of Captain William 
and Nancy Day of Chatham. She was b. October 25, 1785, d. 
December 10, 1849. 

6. Susannah Richards, b. April 21, 1781, d. January 10, 
1854. Married, February 26, 1803, Foster, son of Captain William 
and Nancy Day of Chatham. He was born in Chatham March 6, 
1781, and died in Elizabeth June 26, 1845. 

Children by second marriage: 

7. Polly, married Samuel Burroughs. 

8. Rebecca, married, 1st, June 24, 1821, Anderson Lewis of 
Livingston, N. J. ; 2d, V^an Sicklen.' 

Some of the descendants of Frederick and Susannah 
Smith, who married into the family of Captain William Day 
of Chatham, are described in the following interesting 
article published in a local newspaper: 

' Torrey's .Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols, 19; AVw 
Jersey Eagle, June 29, 1821. 



io6 



History of Chatham 



FIVE GENERATIONS OF A CHATHAM FAMILY. 

A family of five living generations is exceedingly rare. There 
was once such a family in Chatham, containing an unbroken line 
from the great-great-grandmother down to the great-great-grand- 
daughter. They are shown in the accompanying picture, which is 
reproduced from a copy of a daguerreotype. The original picture 
was taken many years ago, and four or five of the persons are dead. 
The surviving one is Mrs. Sarah Purdy. She was the mother of 
the little girl in the picture. At the time it was taken her name was 
Mrs. Crane, for she has married since then. 

It was in 1853 that the daguerreotype was taken, and the event 
was one of the greatest importance in the historj' of the family. Every 
member of it was born and died in Chatham. The family was gen- 
erally known as the Days, for the three eldest members of it lived 
in the Day homestead. Mrs. Crane and her daughter lived in an- 
other house close by. Chatham in those times did not have many 
things to be proud of, but it did have the five living generations, 
and it honored them fully. It is said that the peaceful little com- 
munity at the foot of Long Hill was even prouder of the five gen- 
erations than it had been only a few years before of Captain Day, 




Cuurtesy of the Nc^suik StutJay Call, 

THE FIVE GENERATIONS 



The Smith Family 107 

a veteran of the Continental army, who had fought valiantly against 
Great Britain. 

Captain Day passed away in 1853, leaving a widow, Mrs. 
Nancy Day, who was the great-great-grandmother of the five gen- 
erations. She was in that year 95 years old. Her daughter was 
Mrs. Sally Crane, aged 77 years. The next youngest, or Mrs. 
Day's granddaughter, was Mrs. Nancy Gardiner. She was 49 
years old. Then came Mrs. Sarah Crane, who bore her grand- 
mother's name, having married a second cousin. Her age was 31 
years. The little girl in the picture was Joanna Crane, 8 years old. 

The Crystal Palace Exposition was held in New York in 1853. 
The managers of it heard of the five generations in Chatham and 
wanted to know if they would not allow a daguerreotype to be 
taken. The matter was discussed and they all consented except 
Mrs. Nancy Day, but after much persuasion Mrs. Day finally con- 
sented. The exposition people were notified, and two men were 
sent to Chatham to take the picture. That day was long afterwards 
talked of by the five generations. Such a hurry and bustle in the 
household had never been known. Each of the ladies had on her 
best black silk and the little girl her smartest frock and such other 
adornments as befitted the occasion. It was explained to the men 
with the camera that Mrs. Sarah Crane's eldest daugjiter, Julia, 
aged 12, was away, on a visit, so Joanna took her place. Great, 
indeed, was Julia's grief and vexation when she returned home a few 
days later and learned what she had missed. 

Mrs. Day died three years afterwards, aged 98 years. The 
little girl followed her a few months later. The next to depart 
this world was Mrs. Sallie Crane, who lived to be 97 years old. 
Then Mrs. Gardiner, aged 94 years, died in 1898. Mrs. Sarah 
Crane, the survivor, was 80 years old last month, and she gives 
promise of living as long as any of those heretofore mentioned. Her 
residence is the old Day homestead. She enjoys the best of health, 
is spry and has all her mental faculties. About a year ago she went 
to Kansas City on a visit, making the journey there and back un- 
accompanied. The owner of the picture is J. C. Bower, of Newark.^ 

' The Chatham Press, March 22, 1902, reprinted from the Newark 
Sunday Call. 



io8 History of Chatham 

REVEREND HEZEKIAH SMITH, D. D. 

Rev. Dr. Hezekiah Smith, elder brother of Dr. Peter 
Smith, was a brigade chaplain in the Continental army, 
and one of the most eminent clergymen of the Baptist 
denomination in New England. He was born at Hemp- 
stead, L. I., April 21, 1737. His family moved to New 
Jersey during his boyhood, and he was a familiar figure in 
Chatham in early days. 

At the age of nineteen Hezekiah was deeply stirred by 
the preaching of Rev. John Gano, the first pastor of the 
Baptist church of IVIorristown; and he was led to unite with 
the church, being one of Mr. Gano's first converts in this 
locality. He had a strong desire for a college education, 
to which his parents were opposed; but his father's consent 
was at length obtained, owing in part to the persuasion of 
Mr. Gano, and he entered the sophomore class of Prince- 
ton in 1759, graduating three years later. He afterwards 
entered the ministry, and in 1765 became the pastor of a 
newly organized Baptist church at Haverhill, Mass., which 
he served until his death. ^ 

Dr. Smith married, June 27, 1770, Hepzibah, daughter 
of Jonathan Kimball, Jr., of Haverill.- 

Like many other clergymen of his day. Dr. Smith 
served as an army chaplain during the Revolutionary war. 
Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities he was commissioned 
chaplain of a battalion commanded by Colonel John Nixon, 
in which organization there were many soldiers from Haver- 
hill. He was afterwards assigned to the Fourth Continental 
Infantry and later to the Sixth Massachusetts; becoming 
brigade chaplain in 1778. He remained in the army until 
the fall of 1780, participating in a number of the principal 
battles fought in the northern States.^ 

•Guild's Chaplain Smith and the Baptists, 21; Sherman's Historic 
Morristown, 81. 

■Torrey's Ancestors and Descendants of Humphrey Nichols, 18. 
^ Heitman's Historical Register, 503. 



The Smith Family 109 

For many year Dr. Smith kept a diary, which has been 
pubHshed in book form,' and contains many interesting refer- 
ences to his experiences during the Revolution. He was a 
warm friend of Washington, and speaks in his journal of 
dining with him on more than one occasion; and when the 
general passed through Haverhill in 1789, he visited the 
former chaplain at his home. From the diary we learn that 
Dr. Smith was accustomed to travel about the country as an 
evangelist, before and after the war; and in the course of 
these journeyings he made frequent visits to his relatives 
and friends in "the Jerseys." The following record of his 
movements in this region is made up of entries appearing in 
various parts of the journal, the dates indicating that the 
incidents referred to occurred at widely varying periods of 
his life. The months and years are here inserted for the 
guidance of the reader. 

Thurs., 24: [February, 1764.] Went to my father's in Morris 

County Mon., [March] 15: Preached at Jeremiah Sutton's 

at Long Hill, from Isa. 9:67 Thurs., [April] 5: Went to 

my father's, and Fri., 6: I preached in Mr. Green's meeting house, 
from John 3 :3. The congregation was much affected. 

Wed., 7: [November, 1764.] Went to my father's. — Thurs., 
8: Visited Obadiah Smith, Happy Cook,'-' and Elizabeth Cook, and 
returned to my father's. In the evening was visited by Happy 
Cook and his wife, and Mr. Parrot and his wife. 

Wed., [September 11, 1765.] Went to my father's.— Thurs., 
12: Visited Obadiah Smith and Happy Cook and their families. 

— Fri., 13: In the evening I preached at Happy Cook's from 

Col. 3 : 4. 

Mon., 6: [October, 1766.] I preached at my father's a ser- 
mon from Ps. 23: 1. After sermon, I baptised my mother in Passaic 
River. In the evening, I preached at Happy Cook's from, "Let the 
inhabitants of the rock sing." 

' Guild's Chaplain Smith and the Baptists. 
'Epaphras Cook, his brother-in-law. 



no History of Chatham 

Dr. Smith again visited New Jersey in the spring of 
1776, at which time he mentions selling his negro slave 
"Cato," a boy about fourteen years of age, to his brother, 
Dr. Peter Smith of Chatham, for $125. The entries in his 
journal are as follows: 

Wed., 2Q: [May] Went to my brother's, Dr. Smith at 
Chatham, and preached that evening at his house from Eph. 6:11.. . . 

Thurs., 30: Went to see my mother and brethren; and preached 

that evening at my brother Uriah Smith's, from I John 3:14 

Fri., 31 : Preached a sermon at Happy Cook's from Joshua 1 :7, and 
that evening another sermon at Dr. Smith's, from Joshua 1 :7. 

Wed., 21: [August.] Went to my mother's at Cheapside 

Wed., 4: [September.] Went to Brother Ellison's. Lodged there 
two nights and visited my relations and preached Thursday evening. 
Mon., 9: Went to my mother's. Tarried there till Wednes- 
day, when I went to Mr. Halsey's at Scotch Plains Sat., 14: 

Went to my mother's at Cheapside. — Sab., 15: Preached two ser- 
mons in Mr. Green's meeting house, in Hanover. — Mon., 16: Visit- 
ing my relations. 

Mon., 17: [April, 1779.] Went to see my relations in the 
Jerseys, and that evening married Daniel Zeleff and Sarah Smith, 
both of Knewbrook.' — Tues., 18: Preached a sermon at brother 
Obadiah's at Knewbrook, from Ex. 15: 2. After sermon went to see 
my mother. — Wed., 19: — Sat., 22: Tarried at my brother Peter's 
with whom my mother now lives in Chatham. — Sab. 23: Preached 
two sermons in the Presbyterian meeting house at Bottle Hill from 
Isa. 12:2 and Eccl. 12: 13, 14, and in the evening at Chatham at 
Dr. Smith's, from Rev. 15:3. 

Fri., 23: [September, 1785.] To Happy Cook's at Kennew 

Brook, to see my mother Tues., 27: To brother Peter's at 

Chatham. Preached from Hos. 14:9 Fri., 30: Preached at 

Short Hill, from Luke 14:23 Mon., [October] 10: Preached 

'Canoe Brook is a stream in Essex County which rises in Livingston 
Township and empties into the Passaic a short distance below Chatham. 
In former times the name was also applied, in a general way, to the terri- 
tory through which the stream flows, including the villages of White Oak 
Ridge, Northfield and Livingston; but as used by Dr. Smith, the name seems 
to be confined to Livingston and the region lying between that place and 
Hanover. 



The Smith Family i i i 

at Uriah Smith's from I John 5:3. — Tues., 11: Preached 
a sermon at Happy Cook's, from Job 14:14, and in the evening at 
Obadiah Smith's, from Isa. 61 : 10.— Wed., 12: Preached at Mr. 
Dunham's, from Acts 16:31, 32, and in the evening at Happy Cook's 
from 2 Cor. 13: 11. 

Thurs., 10: [September, 1789.] Went to Kennewbruok to 
Happy Cook's. — Fri., 1 1 : Went to my brother Peter Smith's, at Chat- 
ham. Preached an evening lecture, from Solomon's Song, 2:10, and 
the ne.xt evening at Happy Cook's from the same te.xt. — Sab., 13: 
Preached at Kennevvbrook, from Isa. 28: 16, Mark 16: 16, and 1 
Tim. 1: 15. 

Fri., 14: [September, 1792.] Went to Kennewbrook, New 
Jersey. — Sat., 15: Preached at Uriah Smith's from Rev. 3: 19.— 
Sab., 16: Preached two sermons at Kennewbrook, from Matt. 25: 2 
and John 5 : 29. 

Sat., 25: [September, 1802.] Left New York and went to 
Brother Ellison's at White Oak Ridge.— Sab., 26: Preached three 
sermons, two at Northfield meeting house, from Gen. 45: 26, and 
one at Brother Cook's from Isa. 40: 1. — Men., 27: Preached a ser- 
mon at Uriah Smith's, from Jer. 31 : 3. — Tues., 28: Preached a ser- 
mon at Northfield meeting house, from Heb. 13: 20, 21. — Wed., 29: 
Preached a sermon at Brother Ellison's, from Isa. 3:10, 11. — 
Thurs., 30; Preached a sermon at Chatham, from Heb. 2:3. 

This tour in tiie autumn of 1802 seems to have been 
Dr. Smith's last visit to his relatives in New Jersey. He 
died at Haverhill on January 24, 1805. 

Andrew Sherburne, who served in the navy during the 
Revolution, and in after Hfe entered the ministry, speaks in 
his autobiography of his meeting with Dr. Smith. He 
writes: 

In the autumn of the year, [1787] Doctor Hezekiah Smith, of 
Haverhill, passed through Cornish, [Maine] on his return home 
from a journey to the north. He was, doubtless, one of the most 
accomplished and most pious ministers of the age. He put up with 
old Mr. Joshua Chadbourn, who lived at that time in an ordinary 



112 History of Chatham 

log cabin. They had had some acquaintance some years before, in 
Sanford, where there had been a reformation. Dr. Smith was a fine- 
looking man, and genteel in his deportment. I was surprised to see 
how perfectly at home he seemed to be in the humble cottage ; 
but I was astonished when I heard him preach. He came late on 
Saturday evening, preached three times on the Sabbath, and left 
us on Monday morning. His preaching caused my very soul to 
tremble: I have a perfect recollection of his text to this day.' 

Dr. Smith's personal appearance was thus described by 
his friend Dr. Baldwin, a member of the Baptist Society of 
Boston : 

In stature Dr. Smith was considerably above the middling size, 
being about six feet in height, and well proportioned. His voice 
was strong and commanding, and his manner solemn and impressive. 
His countenance, though open and pleasant, was peculiarly solemn 
and majestic. In his deportment, he was mild, dignified, and grave, 
equally distant from priestly hauteur, and superstitious reserve. He 
never thought religion incompatible with real politeness ; hence the 
gentleman, the scholar, and the Christian were happily blended in 
his character. 

He was further described by Rev. Dr. Laban Clark of 
Middletown, Conn., as "a man of venerable appearance and 
stately form — robust, but not corpulent; his locks white as 
wool; his eyebrows retaining their natural dark hue; his face 
full and fair, bearing almost the flush of youth, and beam- 
ing with intelligence and good-will; and his manner grave 
and dignified, as well befitting the office of an ambassador 
of God."- 

REVEREND JAMES CALDWELL. 

A famous character of Revolutionary history, who 
spent much time in Chatham during the War of Independ- 

' Memoirs of Andrew Sherburne, 149. 

'Guild's Chaplain Smith and the Baptists, 376. 



Rev. James Caldwell 113 

ence, was the Reverend James Caldwell of Elizabeth, the 
Pastor of the First Presbyterian church of that city, who 
acted as chaplain of various military organizations raised 
in this part of the State, and also served in the commissary 
department and quartermaster's department of the army. 
"The Fighting Chaplain," as he is known in history, was the 
son of John and Margaret (Phillips) Caldwell. His an- 
cestors were French Huguenots who, having been obliged to 
flee from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
established a home in Scotland, and later, to escape the 
persecutions of Claverhouse, sought refuge in County 
Antrim, Ireland. From thence John Caldwell emigrated to 
America in 1700, with his wife, several children and four 
unmarried sisters, and settled at Chestnut Level, Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania; afterwards removing to what is now 
Charlotte County, Virginia, and making his home at a place 
known as "the Caldwell Settlement," on Cub Creek, a tribu- 
tary of the Staunton River. Here James was born in April, 
17.34, the youngest of a family of seven children. 

James was prepared for college by Rev. John Todd, a 
protege of Rev. Samuel Davies. At the age of fifteen he 
entered the College of New Jersey, then located at Newark, 
graduating in 1759; studied theology under President 
Davies, and was ordained by the Presbytery of New Bruns- 
wick in 1760. He was appointed to supply vacancies in the 
South, especially in the Carolinas; but in the autumn of 
1 76 1 he accepted a call to the Presbyterian church of 
Elizabeth, N. J., at an annual salary of £160, and was in- 
stalled during the following spring.' 

In 1763 Mr. Caldwell was united in matrimony with 
Hannah, daughter of Judge John Ogden of Newark, 
and a younger sister of Jemima Ogden who married, as her 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 513, 514; Wheeler's The Ogden Family in 
America, 96. 



114 History of Chatham 

second husband, Stephen Day, a leading citizen of Chat- 
ham.^ 

The Caldwell family and many other patriots of 
Elizabeth were obliged to leave their homes upon the 
advance of the British into New Jersey in November, 1776, 
and to seek, safety among the hills bordering the Passaic 
River in a remote section of the old township of Elizabeth 
then called Turkey and now New Providence. The parson, 
however, carried on his pastoral duties in and near Elizabeth 
whenever a withdrawal of the enemy rendered his return to 
the city reasonably prudent. 

During 1778 and the first half of 1779 Mr. Caldwell 
lived with his family at Springfield; and subsequently, for 
about a year, at Connecticut Farms, now Union; these places 
being as near to Elizabeth as he could safely approach. At 
the time of the battle of Connecticut Farms, June 7, 1780, 
Mrs. Caldwell was murdered by a British soldier; and 
shortly after his bereavement the chaplain bought a house in 
New Providence and resided there until his death. 

Mr. Caldwell commenced his military career in the 
winter or spring of 1776, when he accepted the position of 
chaplain of the Third battalion of New Jersey Continentals, 
of which organization most of the officers and many of the 
privates were numbered among his parishioners. The 
Jersey Brigade, to which this battalion was attached, 
marched to relieve the northern army then besieging 
Quebec; and the chaplain saw considerable service In the 
field during the summer, returning to Elizabeth In the early 

' Judge Ogden is known in history as "John Ogden of Newaric." In 
the Essex County court minutes he is mentioned continuously as justice, 
judge, &c., from 1742 to 1776. In 1740 he joined with his uncle Josiah and 
his brother Uzal in the purchase of the Ringwood property and the organi- 
zation of the Ringwood Mining Company, his interest in which he retained 
until 1765. He married Hannah, daughter of Jonathan Sayre. His sons 
were all patriots with the exception of Jonathan, who held the rank of 
surgeon general in the British army, and was later a judge in Newfound- 
land. — fVheeler's The Ogden Family in .4merica, 6$; Mrs. Ellet's The 
IVomen of the Revolution, 11, loy. 



Rev. James Caldwell 115 

fall. He was discharged with his battalion in November 
of the same year; but, while the records are silent on the 
point, there seems to be no doubt whatever that he continued 
to act as an army chaplain, though perhaps unofficially, up 
to the time of his death.' 

Mr. Caldwell's military activities were not limited to 
the duties of chaplain: he also served in various other 
capacities. In some of the battles of the Revolution, notably 
at Connecticut Farms and Springfield, he participated in the 
actual fighting. We are all familiar with the anecdote of 
the latter engagement related by Dr. Nicholas Murray, and 
repeated in every publication in which the chaplain's name 
occurs, namely: that when the troops exhausted their supply 
of wadding, Mr. Caldwell hastened to the Presbyterian 
church of Springfield and returned to the firing line with his 
arms filled with Isaac Watts' psalm-books which he dis- 
tributed to the soldiers to be torn up and used as wadding, 
shouting "Now put Watts into them, boys!'" 

In the Journals of Congress under date of March 15, 
1777, there is a record of the payment to him of $200 for 
extraordinary services; and on May 27 of the same year 
Congress ordered the sum of $4,873.54 to be paid him 
"for the services of a company of light horse of Essex 
County in the State of New Jersey, commanded by Capt. 
Jacob Wynans, their horse hire and expenses." ' On Septem- 
ber 17, 1778, Congress directed one million dollars to be 
advanced to the quartermaster-general; and for the pur- 
pose of distributing this money, and settling and paying the 
accounts of the department, deputy quartermasters were 
appointed thoughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania, one of 
whom was "Doctor James Caldwell at Elizabeth Town," 
whose district included the counties of Middlesex, Somerset, 

' Hatfield's Elizabeth, 525, 527. 

■ New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings, Ser. 1, HI, 79. 

' Hatfield's Elizabeth, 526. 



ii6 History of Chatham 

Essex, Morris, Bergen, Hunterdon and Monmouth in the 
former State.' He seems to have served in this capacity 
with the honorary ranic of colonel, for in military corre- 
spondence he is addressed and referred to by this title. He 
resigned from the quartermaster's department in the spring 
of 1779. 

Mr. Caldwell was also prominent in civil life. He was 
elected one of the trustees of Princeton College in 1769 — 
just ten years after his graduation — and we find him serving 
as clerk of the board of trustees in 1776, 1778 and 1779." 
During the latter year he was chairman of the Essex County 
Committee of Correspondence.'' About that time Congress 
resolved to borrow $20,000,000 to meet the expenses of the 
war, the raising of money by taxation alone having been 
found too slow to be practicable; and Governor Livingston 
of New Jersey thereupon appointed discreet and trustworthy 
persons in the several counties of the State to receive sub- 
scriptions to this loan and to transmit the same to the loan 
office, Mr. Caldwell being his selection for Essex County.^ 

The highest civil office held by Parson Caldwell was 
that of member of the Legislative Council, as the State 
Senate was then called. In the autumn of 1780 he was 
elected to represent Essex County, and took his seat on 
October 26th. This office he held until his death, appearing 
in the council chamber for the last time on October 5, 1781.'' 
While a member of the council he was one of the three com- 
missioners appointed by that body for the purpose of 
liquidating and settling the deficiencies of the pay of the 
New Jersey troops — a task which, owing to the great depre- 
ciation of the Continental currency, and the mutinous temper 

'New Jersey Archives, Ser. 2, II, 452. 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 522; New Jersey Archives, Ser. 2, I, 547, II, 151, 
III, 191. 

"New Jersey Archives, Ser. 2, III, 501. 

*Ibid., 559, 595. 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 528; Proceedings of the Legislative Council. 



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CONTINENTAL CURRENCV 
Showing both sides. 



Rev. James C.\Ln\vELL ny 

of the soldiers, was one of great delicacy. He served as 
clerk of the New York Presbytery in i 78 i .' 

The character of Parson Caldwell combined in equal 
degree the qualities of clergyman and soldier, and he was 
most zealous and efficient in each capacity. Ever ready to 
discharge the duties of a minister of the Gospel, and holding 
religious meetings whenever opportunity offered, in churches, 
in private dwellings, or in the open air, he was also prepared 
to fulfil his military obligations at a moment's notice. His 
services in the commissary department were of the greatest 
value. The people held him in so much respect and esteem, 
and had such implicit confidence in his integrity, that his 
appeals for provisions for the army were always complied 
with, upon whatever guaranty he could give as to pay. And 
when the passions of the soldiers were aroused to a state 
bordering upon mutiny, owing to the inabilitv of Congress 
to pay them for their services, the chaplain was able, by his 
patriotic speeches, to calm their resentment and persuade 
them to remain loyal to the cause they served. In fact he 
played so important a part in the struggle for liberty as to 
excite the especial animosity of the British, and it is said that 
with the single exception of Governor Livingston, for whose 
arrest or assassination the enemy offered a reward, there 
was no one in this region whom they were more anxious to 
capture than "the Rebel High Priest." So great was Cald- 
well's danger from this source that when preaching in 
Colonel Hatfield's storehouse in Elizabeth, after his church 
had been burned by the enemy in 1780, he deeme.l it neces- 
sary to place his pistols beside him on the pulpit, whilf 
sentries kept guard at the door.- 

Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle mentions an incident which illus- 
trates the reverence and love with which the chaplain was 
generally regarded. It was announced one day that he was 

^ New Jersey Journal. No. l\2, April 11, 1781. 
Elizlb^^tr 52?"^^ Historical Society Proceedings, Ser. 1, III, 77; Hatfield's 



ii8 History OF Chatham 

to preach in the open fields not far from Chatham bridge. 
A multitude of people assembled from every quarter, and 
while a man was erecting a temporary stage for the speaker, 
an old soldier elbowed his way through the crowd, and upon 
learning that a platform was being built for Mr. Caldwell, 
he exclaimed, "Let me have the honor of serving as his plat- 
form ! Let him preach to-day standing upon my body ! 
Nothing is too good for Parson Caldwell!" with other ex- 
pressions of similar character, showing his profound respect 
for the warrior priest.^ 

A Memoir of Rev. James Caldwell, from the pen of 
Dr. Nicholas Murray, contains the following observations: 

So deep was the impression made by this man upon the minds 
of the youth of his charge, that after a lapse of sixty years their 
recollections of him are of the most vivid character. His dress, ap- 
pearance, conversation, manner of preaching, texts, are as fresh in 
their minds as things of yesterday. And with a singular unanimity 
they agree in the following description of him. He was of the middle 
size, and strongly built. His countenance had a pensive, placid 
cast, but when excited was exceedingly expressive of resolution and 
energj'. His voice was sweet and pleasant, but at the same time so 
strong that he could make himself heard above the notes of the drum 
and the fife. As a preacher he was uncommonly eloquent and pa- 
thetic, rarely preaching without weeping himself ; and at times he 
would melt his whole audience into tears. The venerable Dr. Green, 
now going on to his ninetieth year, says that the impressions made 
by one sermon by Caldwell preached in Chatham in 1779 or 1780 
have never been effaced from his mind. 

He was among the most active of men, and seemed never u'ea- 
ried by any amount of bodily or mental labor. Feelings of the most 
glowing patriotism and of the most fervent piety possessed his bosom 
at the same time, without the one interfering with the other. He was 
one day preaching to the battalion — the next marching with them 
to battle, and, if defeated, assisting to conduct their retreat — and 
the next administering the consolations of the gospel to some dying 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 333. 



Rev. James C.\Ln\VELL 119 

parishioner. His people were most ardently attached to him, and the 
army adored him. Let his name be held in perpetual remembrance.' 

Dr. Murray relates an amusing anecdote of Parson 
Caldwell and one of his parishioners. Abraham Clark of 
Elizabeth, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and 
for many years a member of Congress. While serving in 
the commissary department, the chaplain had an office and 
provision store at Chatham, over the door of which he dis- 
played the sign "J.\MES Caldwell, D.Q.M.G.," hav- 
ing reference to his rank of deputy quartermaster-general. 
Seeing Mr. Clark approaching the door one day, he went to 
meet him, and found him intently gazing at the sign. "What 
are you looking at so earnestly?" asked Mr. Caldwell. "I 
am looking at those letters," responded his visitor, "and I 
am striving to comprehend what they mean." "Well, what 
do you think they mean?" asked the chaplain. "I cannot 
conceive," was the reply, "unless they mean 'Devilish Queer 
Minister of the Gospel.' " Parson Caldwell was much 
amused by this novel interpretation, and he joined with his 
friend in hearty laughter. 

Some of the circumstances of the case point to the 
possibility that Dr. Murray is mistaken in placing the scene 
of this episode at Chatham, and suggest that the incident 
happened, not in this village, but in Springfield, where Mr. 
Caldwell then lived. We know that the chaplain had an 
office in Springfield, for he mentions it in the advertisements 
relating to the business of the quartermaster's department 
which he inserted in the newspapers; and it seems unlikely 
that he maintained another office at the same time in the 
neighboring village of Chatham, unless required to do so by 
conditions which do not now appear. In his advertisements 
he names a number of cities and villages where he purposes 

' New Jersey hi.istorical Society Proceedings, Ser. 1, III, 77. The town- 
ship and city of Caldwell, in Essex County, received their name in memory 
of the Fighting CItaplain. 



I20 History of Chatham 

to attend from time to time, "for the convenience of the in- 
habitants," in the discharge of his official duties; but in this 
list of town-names no mention of Chatham is made. The 
fact, too, that Mr. Clark, as well as Mr. Caldwell, resided 
temporarily in Springfield when the activities of the enemy 
compelled them to leave Elizabeth, adds weight to the sup- 
position that the incident in question happened there. 
Nevertheless, Dr. Murray's statement has never been ques- 
tioned, but, on the contrary, it is corroborated by William 
P. Tuttle, author of Bottle Hill and Madison, who says that 
the anecdote was related to his father by an eyewitness as 
having taken place in Chatham. 

Allusion has been made to the murder of Mrs. Caldwell 
in the battle of Connecticut Farms. The family at that time 
occupied the Presbyterian parsonage at the Farms, which 
Mr. Caldwell had rented during the preceding summer.^ 
When the approach of the enemy was announced, the 
chaplain placed his older children in a wagon in his pos- 
session as commissary, and sent them for safety to the home 
of his friend, Deacon Ephraim Sayre of Bottle Hill:' but the 
two youngest remained with their mother. Mr. Caldwell, 
upon leaving his house to take part in the impending battle, 
urged his wife to seek safety in flight, as their neighbors had 
decided to do; but she preferred to remain, believing that, as 
a non-combatant, she would be safe from bodily injury, and 
hoping that her presence would be the means of protecting 
the house from pillage. 

When the battle was about to commence, Mrs. Caldwell 
and her children, with their nurse, Catherine Benwood, and 
a housemaid named Abigail Lenington, retired to a bedroom 
at the rear of the house, which, being enclosed by stone walls 
with only a single window, afforded protection against 
random bullets. The party occupied this room when the 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 491. 

'Mrs. EUet's The Women of the Revolution, II., 108, 111. 



Rkv. Jamks CALinvEi.r, 121 

enemy retreated through the vilhige, the ladies sitting upon 
the bed, and the nurse holding the youngest child in her 
arms. The housemaid, upon looking out of the window, 
suddenly exclaimed that a red-coat soldier had jumped over 
the fence and was approaching the house with a gun. A 
moment later he appeared at the window, and taking de- 
liberate aim at Mrs. Caldwell who had risen to her feet, he 
discharged two bullets, both of which entered her body. She 
fell backward upon the bed and expired almost immediately. 
The house was then plundered and soon afterwards set on 
fire. Mrs. Caldwell's body was removed, and lay for a time 
in the road; but at length two civilians carried it into the 
house of Captain Henry Wade on the opposite side of the 
street, which was one of only two buildings in the village 
which escaped the flames.' 

It was generally supposed that the murderer recognized 
Mrs. Caldwell, and shot her to gratify the hatred which the 
enemy harbored toward her husband: but it is not certain 
that he was actuated by such motive. The British claimed 
that she had been killed by a random bullet fired from the 
direction of the American lines; and in order to refute this 
assertion, Mr. Caldwell, a few weeks later, prepared and 
published a detailed statement of the case, supported by the 
affidavits of the two maids, proving that the homicide was 
intentional. From this source many of the above facts are 
taken. 

During the night after the battle, the chaplain lodged 
in a house on the Short Hills, in a state of extreme anxiety 
respecting the fate of his wife and children. He had retir^ 
to rest when he overheard two soldiers in the adjoining room 
discussing the rumored death of Mrs. Caldwell. He im- 
mediately entered their room in great agitation, and im- 
plored them to tell him all that they had heard. They en- 

' Neit' Jersey Journal, No. 81, September 6, 1780; Barber's New Jersey 
Historical Collections, 197. 



122 History of Chatham 

deavored to calm his fears, and persuaded him to return to 
his bed; assuring him that the rumor was not substantiated, 
and was probably untrue. The next morning he procured a 
flag, and hastened to Connecticut Farms. He perceived from 
a distance that the village had been laid in ashes, and was 
not long in verifying the afflicting report of the preceding 
night.^ 

The recollection of Parson Caldwell's son Josiah re- 
garding the tragedy and his movements at the time is thus 
recorded in Mrs. EUet's valuable history. The Women of the 
Revolution. About sunrise on the fateful day, when it was 
learned that the British were approaching, Josiah left his 
father's house, and, joining the villagers who were driving 
their cattle to safety, he accompanied them as far as Spring- 
field. There he saw his father with a 6-pound cannon which 
had been formerly used as an alarm gun. He then pro- 
ceeded to the house of Deacon Sayre at Bottle Hill, and a 
day or two later he and his sister Hannah set out on foot to 
return home. On their way they met their nurse Katy, with 
the two youngest children, in a chair belonging to Mr. Cald- 
well. She informed them of their mother's death, and 
urged them to return with her to Bottle Hill. The little 
girl yielded and was taken into the conveyance, but Josiah in- 
sisted upon continuing his journey. Upon reaching the 
Farms, he was conducted to the house to which his mother's 
remains had been taken, and found his father, who had ar- 
rived a short time before, standing beside the bed upon 
which her lifeless form reposed. 

Mrs. Caldwell was survived by nine children ranging 
in age from two to sixteen years, one son having died in 
infancy. We learn from LittelFs Passaic Valley Genealogies, 
page 153, that after her death the children were all taken to 
the home of Stephen Day of Chatham, whose wife was a 
sister of their mother. The Day homestead stood upon the 
property now owned by the Ogden Memorial Presbyterian 

'Barber's New Jersey Historical Collections, 197. 



3 4^ K 

_. 3 o 

sr 3 S 

O V ^ 

TO W "^ 







Tin: Caldwell Family 123 

church, but nearer the road than the church edifice. How 
long the Caldwell children lived in Chatham at that time 
is not stated; but they probably remained here until their 
father bought a house and established a home at New 
Providence. 

On November 24, 178 1, Mr. Caldwell was shot and 
instantly killed at Elizabeth Town Point by an American 
soldier named James Morgan. It was commonly believed 
that the assassin had been bribed by the enemy to commit 
the crime, but no proof that such was the case could be 
obtained. His motive, in fact, has always remained a 
mystery; although part of the evidence adduced at his trial 
seemed to indicate that he shot the parson to gratify a 
private grudge, because Caldwell, as deputy quartermaster- 
general, had failed to tender him his pay with the regularity 
he desired. A report of the tragedy, which has been 
accepted as substantially accurate, is quoted from the Neiv 
Jersey Journal of November 28th. 

It is with the utmost pain and distress that w? inform our readers 
that the Reverend Mr. Jas. Caldwell, of Elizabeth-Town, was most 
inhumanly and barbarously murdered on Saturday last by a soldier 
belonging to the year's men at that place. 

This worthy gentleman being informed of the arrival of a 
young lady in a flag from New York, at the Point, whose family 
had been peculiarly serviceable to our unhappy fellow-citizens, 
prisoners with the enemy, proposed waiting on her and conducting 
her to the town, as a grateful acknowledgement of the services offered 
by her family as above mentioned. He accordingly went to the Point 
in a chair for that purpose, and after the young lady had got in 
the chair, the sentinel observing a handkerchief tied up in a bundle 
in her hand, told IMr. Caldwell he must seize it in the name of the 
state; on which Mr. Caldwell jumping out of the chair, said if that 
was the case, he would return it to the commanding officer, who 
was there present; but as he stepped forward, another impertinently 
told him to stop, which he immediately did, but notwithstanding, the 
soldier, without farther provocation, raised his gun and shot him 



124 History of Chatham 

dead on the spot. The villain was immediately seized and secured. 
He made but a very indifferent excuse for his conduct, and still re- 
mains very sullen and obstinate. After his being secured, it appeared 
by several evidences that, though a soldier with us for near twelve 
months past, he had been seen in New York within a fortnight past; 
and, from several other circiunstances, there seems just grounds of 
suspicion that the wretch had been bribed to commit this abominable 
deed. 

Morgan was confinecl for a time in Springfield, later in 
Burlington, and finally in Westfield, where his trial was held. 
He expiated his crime on the gallows January 29, 1782, 
upon a spot a little west of the town of Westfield, which was 
long known as Morgan's Hill.^ 

Mr. Caldwell's body was removed to the house of Mrs. 
Experience Noel, w-idow of Garret Noel, on Jersey Street, 
Elizabeth, where the funeral was held on November 27th, 
the services being conducted by Rev. Dr. McWhorter of 
Newark. The administration of the chaplain's estate, and 
the guardianship of his orphaned children were undertaken 
by his warm friend Elias Boudinot. As the estate proved 
insufficient for the maintenance and education of the 
children, a subscription for the purpose was taken up; among 
those who contributed being General Washington, whose 
donation amounted to twenty or twenty-five guineas. - 

The lives of the Caldwell children are briefly outlined 
as follows : 

1. Margaret Phillips, her grandmother's namesake, born 
January 23, 1764, died January 3, 1831. She was educated at Miss 
Hedden's select school in Newark. She married December 2, 1837, 
Isaac Canfield, a farmer and storekeeper of Malapardis, N. J., and 
later a merchant of Morristown. He had fought in the Revolution, 
and served as major of the Morris Battalion from 1807 to 1812. 
He is said to have introduced the Virginia crabapple into Morris 
County. 

' Hatfield's Elizabeth, 532 n. Bafbers N. J. Hist. Collections, 169. 
'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 532, 534; Boudinot's Elias Boudinot, 207. 



The Calowell Family 121; 

2. John Dickinson, born January 29, 1765, died May 11, 
1766. 

3. Hannah, born September 20, 1767, died February 20, 
1825. She married, 1st (1790), James R. Smith; 2d (1820), Dr. 
John Richardson Ba\ard Rogers. Mr. Smith was a merchant of New- 
York and one of the proprietors of the Tontine coffee house. He 
resided on Pearl Street, and later on Broad\va\'. Dr. Rogers was an 
eminent surgeon, a graduate of tlie University of Edinburgh, and a 
professor in Columbia Medical College. His father. Rev. John 
Rogers, D.D., pastor of the old Wall St. church, was the founder of 
Presbyterianism in New York. 

4. John Edwards, born February 2, 1769, died March 9, 1819. 
After his father's death he was placed under the care of Dr. Mc- 
Whorter. The Marquis de Lafayette, out of regard for Parson 
Caldwell, obtained from Mr. Boudinot permission to adopt the 
chaplain's eldest son. John accordingly accompanied the Marquis 
on his return to France in 1782, and became a member of his fam- 
ily. He returned to America in 1791, and made his home in Phila- 
delphia, where Boudinot was then living. There he married, in 1801, 

Louise , who died within a year, leaving an infant daughter. 

In June. 1801, he was appointed consular agent of the United States 
for San Domingo, W. L His subsequent home was in New York. 
He married, as his second wife, Hannah, the daughter of Rev. 
Nathan Ker of Goshen, N. Y., and widow of Theodorus Van Wyck. 
He eventually renounced Catholicism, which he had embraced in 
France, and united with the Cedar Street Presbyterian church in 
New York, of which he soon became an elder. He was a distin- 
guished philanthropist. He was one of the founders of the American 
Bible Society, and until his death its general agent. He established 
The Christian Herald, and edited and published the first five volumes 
of that periodical. 

5. James Baxter, born January 8, 1771, died February 12, 
1826, was a lawyer of Woodbury, N. J., and for several years a 
judge of Gloucester County. His wife's name is not known. 

6. Esther Flynt, born October 26, 1772, died in Lebanon, 
111., Sept., 18-^f. She married May 16, 1798, Dr. Robert Finley of 
Basking Ridge, N. J., afterwards president of the University of 
Georgia. 

7. Josiah Flynt, born in Elizabeth, N. J., August 23, 1774, 



126 History of Chatham 

died in Washington, D. C, November 15, 1859. After his parents' 
death he was adopted by General Benjamin Lincoln, who placed him 
in school at Hingham, Mass. He was afterwards bound as appren- 
tice to a hatter of Boston, from whom he ran away, and followed 
the sea for many years. He commanded his own ship during the 
wars of Napoleon, and had many narrow escapes from capture by 
both French and British frigates. Upon retiring from a seafaring 
life he resided in Washington, D. C. He married, November 27, 
1815, Maria Helen Magruder of Alexandria, Va. He held a clerk- 
ship under the Federal government for thirty years, being connected 
with the Post Office Department. 

8. Elias Boudinot, born April 3, 1776, died in Washington, 
D. C, May 31, 1825. He was adopted by Mr. Boudinot, whose 
namesake he was. He graduated from the College of New Jersey 
in 1796, studied law with Mr. Boudinot and inherited his fine law 
library. He married 1st, Elizabeth Boyd; 2nd, Ann Lingan. 
He was one of the founders, and also corresponding secretary, of 
the American Colonization Society ; and in acknowledgment of his 
services in this capacity, a town in Liberia, Africa, was named in his 
honor. He served as clerk of the United States Supreme Court 
from 1800 to 1827; and after the capitol had been burned by the 
British in 1814, the court met for a time in his house, 204-206 New 
Jersey Avenue. 

9. Sarah Ogden, born in Springfield, N. J., June 12, 1778, 
died August 25, 1826. She married, >pril 24, 1800, Rev. John S. 
Vredenburg of New Brunswick, N. J., for many years pastor of 
the Reformed Church of Somerville. 

Her seventh child. Elizaheth, married Rev. John Edgar Freeman. Mr. and Mrs. 
Freeman went as missionaries to India, and perished in the Sepoy Mutiny at Cawn- 
pore, June 13, 1857. 

10. Maria, born in Connecticut Farms, September 29, 1779, 

died in New York City, April 5, 1852. After her father's death 

she was adopted by Mrs. Noel. She married, October 22, 1804, 

Robert S. Robertson of the mercantile firm of Robertson & Kelso of 

New York. Mr. Robertson failed in 182S, and thereafter secured 

employment in the U. S. Custom House, which he retained for many 

years.' 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 534 & seq. ; Wheeler's The Ogden Family in 
America, 161 & seq.; Tuttle's Bottle Hill and Madison, 52; Barber's New 
Jersey Historical Collections, 169; Banta's Sayre Family, 100. 



CHAPTER VI 

TTie Signal Station on Hobart Hill — Location of the Alarm Post — 
Description of the Beacon — Orders and Correspondence respect- 
ing the Construction of Alarm Posts — The Alarm Guns "Old 
Sow" and "Crown Prince" — Erection of a Monument. 

OUR Revolutionary forefathers did not rely solely upon 
the troops at Chatham, to prevent a British invasion 
of this part of Morris County: they perceived at an early 
period in the war that some means should be provided for 
quickly arousing the entire countryside, and assembling the 
militia, whenever an advance of the enemy was attempted. 
A chain of alarm posts equipped with beacons was accord- 
ingly established upon the hilltops of northern New Jersey, 
from one of which to another the tidings of the enemy's 
movements could be readily signalled. One of these stations 
— the one from which an alarm was most frequently given 
when this part of the State was threatened, and which, in 
consequence, is most often mentioned in local histories — was 
placed on the summit of a ridge known as Hobart Hill, 
which is crossed by the Morris Turnpike leading from 
Chatham to Springfield, about two miles southeast of 
Chatham bridge. This ridge forms a connecting link be- 
tween the Short Hills of Essex County and an elevation in 
Union County upon which the present city of Summit is 
built. Dr. Hatfield calls it "Prospect Hill" in his History 
of Elizabeth, and the name has been adopted by subsequent 
writers; but during the War of Independence it was usually 
included in the general name of the Short Hills, of which it 
is, m fact, a part. It was more particularly defined in military 
correspondence as "the heights of Springfield," "the heights 
above Springfield," "the Short Hills back of Springfield," 



128 History of Chatham 

and "the pass in the mountains"; although the latter term 
was generally confined to the notch or gap through which 
the turnpike runs. The present name was bestowed in 
honor of Rev. Dr. John H. Hobart, bishop of the Protestant 
Episcopal diocese of New York, who, after the close of the 
Revolution, built a summer home upon the crest of the ridge 
on the north side of the turnpike in the Brantwood district 
of Short Hills, where the residence of C. L. Roche now 

stands. 

Rev. Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle gives a description of the 
alarm post which is sufficiently interesting to be quoted at 
length. He writes : 

While the Army was encamped here, a Company of armed senti- 
nels was stationed on the crown of Short-hills, at a point about four 
rods South of the main road, and nearly in front of the residence 
of the late Bishop Hobart. This point commanded a view of the 
entire country East of the mountain, including New York Bay, 
Staten-island, Newark Bay, Newark, Elizabethtown, Springfield, 
and, in fact, the entire seaboard in the vicinity of New York, so that 
the slightest movement of the enemy, in all that wide region, could, 
without difficulty, be detected. It also commanded a view of the 
entire region West of the mountain, to the crown of the hills which 
lie back of Morristown, and extending to Basking-ridge, Pluckamin, 
and the hills in the vicinity of Middle-brook on the South, and over 
to Whippany, Montville, Pompton, Ringwood, and, across the State- 
line, among the mountains of Orange-county, New York, on the 
North. 

On that commanding elevation, which could, itself, be seen on 
both sides of the Short-hills, over all this wide extent of territory, the 
means were kept for alarming the inhabitants of the interior, in case 
of any threatening movements of the enemy, in any direction. A 
cannon — an eighteen-pounder called in those times "The Old Sow" 
— fired every half-hour, answered this object during the day-time and 
in very stormy and dark nights; while an immense fire, or beacon- 
light, answered the end at all other times. A log-house or two, it 
is believed, with fire-places and accommodations for sleeping, were 



The Sicn'al Station 129 

erected there for the use of the sentinels who, by reh'eving one an- 
other at different intervals, kept careful watch both by day and night 
— their eyes continually sweeping over all the vast extent of country 
that lay stretched out like a map before them. 

The beacon-light was constructed of dry rails, laid up in a 
crib-fashion around a high pole. This was filled with various com- 
bustible materials ; while a tar-barrel was placed upon the top of 
the pole. When the sentinels discovered any movement of the enemy, 
of a threatening character, either the alarm-gun was fired or this 
mass of combustibles was set in a blaze, so that tidings were spread 
almost instantaneously over the whole region. 

There are several persons still living in this place [1855] who 
remember to have heard that dismal alarm-gun booming, and to 
have seen those beacons sending out their baleful and terrific light, 
from that high point of observation ; and who remember also to have 
seen the inhabitants, armed with their muskets, making all possible 
haste to Chatham-bridge and the Short-hills, the places of rendezvous 
in such cases, to prevent the enemy from crossing over into this 
valley. Every ear was open, at all hours of day and night, to catch 
the first note of warning from that old field-piece, whose sound was 
known by all; and there were but few moments during the watches 
of the night in which there were not anxious eyes peering through 
the darkness towards the East, to see whether or not that beacon-fire 
was burning.' 

Rev. Dr. Joseph F. Tuttle, while a resident of Rock- 
away, N. J., also collected much valuable data relating to 
the Revolutionary history of Morris County; and although 
his researches were chiefly confined to the western part of 
the county, his writings contain in the following paragraph 
a reference to the beacon on Hobart Hill: 

That there was a s\'stem of beacon-lights, there can be no doubt, 
although, unfortunately, the most of those are dead who could give 
us information about it, and there are no documents describing the 
\arious points where these lights were kindled. Of one, we have some 
knowledge. Seven miles North of Morristown, near the present 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 325. 



130 History of Chatham 

Rail-road Depot at Denville, is a mountain which rises abruptly 
to a considerable height, from which you can see the Short-hills. On 
this point there was a beacon-light, managed by Captain Josiah Hall, 
whose descendants still reside in the vicinity. A fire from this point 
would be seen from the top of Green Pond mountain, several miles 
farther North ; and a fire on that mountain would probably reach 
the portion of Sussex-county where the brave Colonel Seward, 
grandfather of Senator Seward, resided. Tradition says that such 
was the case ; and that, often, at night, the tongue of fire might be 
seen leaping into the air on the Short-hills, soon to be followed by 
brilliant lights on Fort-hill, on the Denville-mountain, the Green 
Pond-mountain, and on the range of mountains on the Orange-county 
line. To many it has seemed inexplicable, and it was so to the enemy, 
that they could not make a movement towards the hills of Morris, 
without meeting the yeomen of Morris, armed and ready to repel 
them. I have conversed with several old men who have seen the 
roads converging on Morristown and Chatham lined with men who 
were hurrying off to the Short-hills to drive back the invaders. The 
alarm-gun and the beacon-light explain the mystery.' 

Dr. Ashbel Green, in his autobiography, mentions the 
signal station on Hobart Hill, but he is in error in stating 
that its site afterwards became the country residence of 
Bishop Hobart. The bishop acquired the adjacent property, 
but his residence stood upon the opposite side of the turn- 
pike. Dr. Green writes: 

The alarm gun, an iron eighteen pounder, was placed on the 
highest point of what are called the Short Hills, in the neighbour- 
hood of Springfield, N. J. Bishop Hobart, after the war, purchased 
the site and made it his country residence. A lofty pole was placed 
by the side of the cannon, with a tar barrel on the top, which was 
set on fire when the gun was discharged. The report of the gun 
and the flame of the tar barrel were heard and seen to a great dis- 
tance in the surrounding country. The militia companies had each 
its place of rendezvous, to which they hastened as soon as the alarm 
was given. The Short Hills were a kind of natural barrier for 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 372. 



Washington at Short Hills 131 

the camp and military stores at Morristown. A hundred men might 
have defended some of the passes over these hills against a thousand. 
A British detachment once reached Springfield and burnt it; but no 
British corps ever ventured into the Sand Hills. In a clear day, 
with a good telescope, the city of New York may be seen from these 
heights. When encamped at Morristown, General Washington oc- 
casionally rode to these hills to make his observations. The first time 
I ever saw him was on one of these occasions. He was accompanied 
b.\ the Marquis de la Fayette, as he was then called, and who looked 
like a mere boy.' 

Local tradition is so clear and positive regarding 
Washington's practice of riding from Morristown through 
Madison and Chatham to the Short Hills for the purpose 
of observation, that Dr. Green's statement is hardly needed 
in corroboration. The fact is also mentioned by Dr. Joseph 
F. Tuttle, who tells us that Mrs. Washington sometimes 
accompanied the general on these trips. "It was no unusual 
thing," he writes, "to see General Washington and his ac- 
complished lady, mounted on bay horses, and accompanied 
by their faithful mulatto 'Bill' and fifty or sixty mounted 
guards,-' passing through the village with all eyes upon 
them," and speaking of Mrs. Washington, he says: "She 
was a graceful and bold rider, and when the weather became 

'Jones's .^shbel Green, 96. 

= The commander-in-chiefs guard was a famous organization. As origi- 
nally formed in 1776 it consisted of a major's command— 180 men— care- 
fully chosen from the regiments of the various States, the selection being 
confined to native Americans who were handsomely and well made young 
and active, and measuring from five feet eight inches to five feet ten inches 
in height. In the spring of 1777 it was increased to 250 men, but reduced to 
the original number a year later; and in 1783, the last vear of service fur- 
ther reduced to 64 noncommissioned officers and privates. The first captain- 
commandant, as the leader was called, was Caleb Gibbs of Rhode Island 
who was succeeded by William Colfax, one of his lieutenants, at the close 
of 17/9. The command was made up of both infantrv and cavalry the 
former guarding the headquarters, while the latter accompanied the general 
on the march and when reconnoitering; being also employed as patrols 
videttes, and dispatch-bearers. 

The only resident of Chatham who was a member of this distinguished 
corps was Private Benjamin Bonnel ; but as he did not join it until the 
spring of 1782, long after Washington had left this region, he was not 
one of the "fifty or sixty mounted guards" mentioned by Dr. Tuttle who 



132 History of Chatham 

mild, sometimes accompanied her husband in his rides to the 
Wicke Farm or the Short Hills, and until recently there 
were those still living who remembered to have seen her 
riding on horseback, and by the engaging courtesy with 
which she bowed to the humblest soldier or other person she 
chanced to meet, she won all hearts to herself."' 

Dr. Turtle records the fact that on one occasion when 
General Washington was visiting the Short Hills, he was 
discovered in a retired place in the vicinity of the signal 
station on his knees and in prayer; after which he arose, and 
seating himself upon a neighboring rock, he sang Watt's 
version of the I02d Psalm, common meter, ist part. This 

accompanied the general on his trips to the Short Hills. Bonnel's war 
record is as follows: 

Enlisted for the war .'\ugust 9, 1777, as private in the 3rd company, un- 
der Captain Conway, later Captain Mead, of the 1st New Jersey regiment. 
Colonel Matthias Ogden, attached to General Maxwell's brigade. De- 
serted at Brandywine, Del., September 11, 1777; rejoined April 1, 1778. 
Fought in battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. Promoted corporal January 
21, 1780. Fought at Connecticut Farms, June 7, 1780, and at Springfield, 
June 23, 1780. Deserted December 13, 1780, rejoined in January, 1781, and 
reduced to the ranks. Detached at Morristown February 26, 1781, to Cap- 
tain Jonathan Forman's (the 1st) company of the 3rd battalion of Lieuten- 
ant-colonel Barber's 1st brigade in General Muhlenberg's 1st division of 
light infantry, commanded by General Lafayette. Fought at Green Springs, 
Va., July 6, 1781, and at Yorktown, October 19, 1781. Transferred at N'ew- 
bur'gh, N. Y., April 30, 1782, to the commander-in-chief's guard, under 
Lieutenant-colonel William Colfax. Furloughed at Newburgh June 6, 1783, 
until the ratification of treaty of peace. Discharged November 3, 1783. 

— Lossing's Biography of Jf'ashinglon, II, 777 n.; Godfrey's The Com- 
mander-in-Chief's Guard; Litlell's Passaic Valley Genealogies, 46. 

His name appears in the following advertisements: 

THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD. Deserted from Capt. 
Mead's company the 12th instant, Benjamin Bonnel, John Burnett, and John 
Yherts, belonging to the 1st Jersey regiment. Any person that will appre- 
hend and secure the above deserters shall be entitled to the above reward. 

c;. MEAD, Capt. 

December 19, 1780. 

—The Neic- Jersey Journal, No. 97; December 27, 1780. 

SUSSEX ss. WAS committed to the gaol of this county the 31st of 
December last, the three following soldiers belonging to Captain Mead's 
company, of the first Jersey regiment viz: Benjamin Bonnel, John Burnet 
and John Yherts, who were lately advertised in the New-Jersey Journal as 
deserters. 

Newtown, Jan. 7 1781. J.AMES MORROW, Gaoler. 

— The New Jersey Gazette, No. 164; February 14, 1781. 

'Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 325; Harper's Magazine, XVIII, 101. 



Site of the Beacon 133 

anecdote was authenticated by a Mrs. Sayre, wife of 
William, and mother of Calvin Sayre, all of Columbia (now 
Florham Park), N. J., who identified it with a place near 
Springfield, and with the time of the last battle at that 
village.' 

The site of the signal station is now occupied by the 
residence of Henry B. Twombly on Hobart Avenue, in the 
city of Summit. The beacon stood about an eighth of a mile 
south of the turnpike (upon a spot which is much higher than 
the notch through which that highway runs), beside an 
ancient lane or by-road, now represented by Hobart Avenue, 
which formerly left the turnpike near C. P. Bassett's present 
gateway, and led in a southerly direction along the ridge. 
The pole which supported the tar-barrel was placed just 
inside the fence on the west side of the lane. In altering 
this by-way into a city street, its line was moved toward the 
east; consequently the site of the beacon is much farther 
from the road at present than was formerly the case. 

It would be difficult to find in this entire region a place 
which offered better facilities for watching the movements 
of the enemy, and of alarming the inhabitants. The spot 
was evidently selected with care: not only is it one of the 
highest elevations along the ridge, where the light of the 
beacon would be most conspicuous, but it is the point from 
which the most extended view can be obtained. Farther 
north the outlook toward Elizabeth and New York is ob- 
structed by the hill at Millburn, while the choice of a more 
southerly location would have caused the end of Long Hill 
at Chatham to conceal the signal light from a large portion 
of Morris County. In after years the prospect in each direc- 
tion became considerably obscured by a dense growth of 
timber, which still remains in part; but during the Revolu- 
tion the hill probably was not so heavily wooded. 

According to local tradition, the signal station on 

'Revolutionary Fragments of Morris County, No. 13. 



134 History of Chatham 

Hobart Hill was established soon after the capture of New 
York by the British in the autumn of 1776. Colonel Drake, 
in his Sketches of the Revolution and Civil War, expresses 
the opinion that the alarm post was placed there by Colonel 
Jacob Ford, Jr., in the latter part of 1776, when he, with a 
brigade of militia, was stationed at Chatham; and that an 
alarm was first given by this means when a British force 
advanced to Springfield on December 17th of that year. But 
although it is probable that the station dated from that 
period, it would seem that the series of beacons of which the 
one on Hobart Hill formed part was not constructed until 
later. 

In the winter of 1778-9 much attention was given to 
the establishment of alarm posts and beacons upon the most 
conspicuous hills throughout this region, and an active cor- 
respondence on the subject was maintained between General 
Washington and his subordinates. Several letters were ex- 
changed by the commmander-in-chief and Lord Stirling, for 
the latter was much interested in the plan, and some of the 
officers who were charged with the construction of the 
beacons were ordered to apply to him for particular direc- 
tions; although in certain parts of the State the work was 
supervised by Stirling himself. The manual labor was per- 
formed by fatigue parties of approximately twenty-four men 
each, detached from the regiments which were encamped 
nearest to the points selected.' 

The method by which the beacons were constructed is 
set forth in a military order found among Lord Stirling's 
papers, and quoted as follows by Mr. Lossing in his Pictorial 
Field Book of the Revolution:- 

Among other orders issued by him at that time were several 
respecting beacons and alarm posts. From one of them, in posses- 
sion of the son of Colonel Aaron Burr, I copied the annexed sketch, 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B, VIII, pt. 1, 573. 
'Vol. II, 808. 



Construction of Beacons 



135 



made by the pen of Lord Stirling, together with the full order. 
"Each of the beacons are to be of the following dimensions: at 
bottom, fourteen feet square, to rise in a pyramidal form to about 
eighteen or twenty feet high, and then to terminate about six feet 
square, with a stout sapling in the centre of about thirty feet high 
from the ground. In order to erect them, the officer who oversees 
the execution should proceed thus: he should order the following 
sized logs to be cut as near the place as possible: twenty logs of 
fourteen feet long and about one foot diameter; ten logs of about 
twelve feet long; ten logs of about ten feet long; ten logs of about 
nine feet long; ten logs of about eight feet long; twenty logs of 
about seven feet long; twenty logs of about six feet long. He 
should then sort his longest logs as to diameter, and place the four 
longest on the ground, parallel to each other, and about three feet 
apart from each other. He should then place the four next logs in size 
across these at right angles, and so proceed till all the logs of four- 
teen feet be placed. Then he is to go on in the same manner with 
logs of twelve feet long, and when they are all placed, with those of 
a lesser size, till the whole are placed, taking care, as he goes on, 
to fill the vacancies between the logs with old dry split wood or use- 
less dry rails and brush, not too close, and leaving the fifth tier open 
for firing and air. In the beginning of his work, to place a good 
stout sapling in the centre, with part of its top left, about ten or 
twelve feet above the whole work. The figure of the beacon will 
appear thus: 



,^i/~-t>i^^ 




136 History of Chatham 

The two upper rows of logs should be fastened in their places with 
good strong wooden plugs or truiinels." 

These beacons [adds Mr. Lossing] were erected upon hills from 
the Hudson Highlands through New Jersey by way of Morristown, 
Pluckemin, and Middlebrook, and upon the Neversink Hills at 
Sandy Hook. They were to be used as signals denoting the ap- 
proach of the enemy, for the assembling of the militia at certain 
points, and to direct the movements of certain Continental battalions. 

When alarm posts had been established in Somerset 
and Middlesex, General Washington decided that the system 
should be extended to some of the other counties. He ac- 
cordingly communicated to Governor Livingston a plan for 
the construction of a chain of beacons throughout the State, 
and on April 9th, 1779, the execution of the project was 
intrusted to General Philemon Dickinson,' who, during the 
preceding December, had been appointed chief signal 
officer of the Continental army for the Middle Department. 
"The line of communication," says Mr. Walton in his His- 
tory of the United States Army and Navy, "extended from 
Newburgh-on-the-Hudson, through Orange and Rockland 
Counties, along the ridge of the Ramapo Mountains and by 
an indirect course to Princeton and Trenton. This line was 
about a hundred and fifty miles long, and all communications 
between the Eastern, Middle and Southern Departments 
passed over it." 

GENERAL HEARD TO COLONEL HOLMES. 

Monmouth County, 

Rocky Hill 12th April, 1779. 
Sir, 

I have this Day rec'd Orders from Maj. General Dickinson to 

execute the within plan. In consequence of which I desire that you 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 371. 
On January 8, 1781, it was reported to the Legislative Council that 
there was due to John Webster, for erecting a beacon on the Short Hills, 
by order of Governor Livingston, the sum of 17 pounds, 17 shillings and 9 
pence; and on October 6, of the same year, the sum of 8 pounds 16 
shillings was reported due to Captain Joseph Horton, for himself and others 
employed in building a beacon in 1779. 



Location of Alarm Posts 137 

instantly on receipt of this letter the Beacons & give the Necessary 
Orders for the rendezvous of the Mih'tia in case of alarm which are 
within your District agreeable to the inclossed directions. You will 
emediately Order the Officers Commanding Companies to have their 
men's Arms put in the best of Order you must Keep an exact ac- 
count of the expence attending the Hxing of these Beacons which you 
will be pleased to transmit me regularly Drawn out and properly 
Certified if the Beacon should be Nearest to you I desire you will 
set fire to it or the officer nearest to it upon proper Occation. 
I am, Sir, Your most obt Servant, 

Nathaniel Heard 

Brigr Genl. 
N. B. 

I am surprised that you have not sent me Returns of the state 
of your Regt I beg you will send me a Return of the state of the 
Regt imediately I desire you will send me word by Express as Soon 
as the Beacons are Erected. 
To Colo Holmes. 

Alarm Posts or places where the Militia New Jersey are to 
assemble on the first alarm which Will be given by fires on the Moun- 
tain at the places agreed on. 

[Here follow directions for each county.] 

Morris County 

the Southern District to assemble at Turkey Meeting House 
and to proceed to the Gap on the Road to Springfield. 

The Middle District to assemble at Chatham to proceed toward 
Springfield. 

The Northern District to assemble near the mouth of Rockaway 
and to proceed over the Mountain towards Newark Mountain 
Meeting House. 

Essex 

To settle their Alarm Posts with General Maxwell. 
* * * * » 

signals on which the Militia are to assemble 

No. 1— A large fire on the Mountain in the Rear of Pluckemin. 
No. 2— One do on the prominent part of the Mountain sted Gap. 
No. 3— do on the most conspicuous part of the mountain Mordicais 
Gap (Alias Waynes Gap). 



138 History of Chatham 

No. 4- — one do near Lincolns Gap. 
No. 5 — one do near Quibble Town Gap. 

No. 6 — one do on the Hill near the Road to Basking ridge about 
four Miles North of Colo Van Homes, which is plainly seen 
at Morris Town & the Country on the side. 
No. 7 — One do on the Remarkable Tree on the Hill Toward 

Princetown. 
No. 8 — Another do on the Hill in frunt of Martin Tavern short 
Hills. 

these fires should be made of Logs intermixed with Brush 
square at Bottom about sixteen feet & to Diminish as they rise like 
a pyramid & should be 18 or 20 feet High. 

It is proposed that preparation should be made to make the 
like signals in the other following places in this state. 
No. 9 — at the point of the Mountain North of Springfield about a 

mile. 
No. 10 — on the Top of the Hill about a Mile south East Catham 

Bridge. 
No. 11 — at Coopers Wind Mill on long Hill at Corns Ludlows.' 
No. 12 — at the point of Kenneys Hill at Morris Town. 
No. 13 — on the highest point of Pidgeons Hill about four miles 

North West of Morris Town. 
No. 1-1 — On the Highest part of Schylors Mountain North West 

of Pluckemin 12 Miles. 
No. 15— On the Hill 10 Miles west of do. 
No. 16 — on the Southernmost part of Cushahvick Hills. 
No. 17— On the Hill N W of Fleming Towns. 
No. 18— On the N W point of Sowerland Hill. 
No. 19 — On the most conspicuous place on the Height of Amwell 

looking southward. 
No. 20— Near Prince Town looking southward. 
No. 21 — on Centre Hill in Monmouth. 
No. 22— on Middleton Hill. 
No. 23 — on Mount Pleasant. 

'The Laws of 1780, Chapter LVU, provided for the payment to Colonel 
Sylvanus Seeley the sum of 56 pounds, 8 shillings and 9 pence; paid to John 
Roll for building a beacon on Long Hill, and for six cords of wood. 



Troops at Short Hills 139 

These three last should be fired only when the Enemy invade 
Monmouth County south of Raritan or on the first appearance of any 
force of the enemy going up Amboy Bay.^ 

Besides the company of sentinels who had charge of the 
alarm gun and beacon, small bodies of troops were occasion- 
ally stationed on Hobart Hill, which was an advantageous 
point for planning and executing sudden movements against 
the enemy. General Washington, in a letter to General 
Stephen of May 24, 1777, referring to the posting of 
Continental troops, says: "Some men will be sent to possess 
the Pass of the Mountain, in some advantageous spot, be- 
tween Springfield and Chatham" ;- and similar references are 
found in other military documents. 

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ZEBULON BUTLER 
TO GENERAL WASHINGTON 

Chatham May 29th 1777. 
Sir 

Pursuant to orders received from your Excellency, by the hand of 
Major General Lincoln I have marched with the 3. detachments 
from Connecticut Regiments: Part of the Westmoreland Independ- 
ent Companies have joined me as was ordered, & more will be 
this day. 

I am now encamped upon the Heights between Chatham & 
Springfield ; Gen Stephens had left this place before my arrival & I 
am destitute of any orders, My Quarter Master (by my discretion) 
waits on your Excellency for Orders, many of the Soldiers in the 
Independent Company's have received no Clothing since they entered 
the Service which was in Sept. last many of their arms are defective 
& useless, they are also destitute of tents, & every kind of Camp 
equipage, hope therefore your excellency will give special directions, 
how & in what manner they are to be supplied with those articles. 

I am with the greatest esteem your excellency's 

Zebn Butler.^ 

" Stillwell's Historical & Genealogical Miscellany, HI, 342. 

" Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B. HI, pt. 1, 210. 

Mbid., 16, 8. 



I40 History of Chatham 

Colonel Butler probably remained until the I2th of 
June, when he was ordered by Washington to talce post at 
Morristown, with his regiment and his two independent 
companies, to guard the stores at that place.* 

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO GENERAL ST. CLAIR. 
Headquarters, Middlebrook, 29th. May, 1779 
Sir:— 

You will be pleased to march immediately with the division 
under your command, by way of Quibble Town and Scotch Plains, 
and take post on the heights between Springfield and Chatham, till 
further orders, or till some enterprise of the enemy shall make a sud- 
den movement necessary.' 

In a letter written by St. Clair to Washington, dated 
Springfield, January 31, 1780, we find this paragraph: 

The Signals for calling out the Militia have been very much 
neglected, and are down in some Places and I cannot find who has 
Care of them. I have requested Mr. Caldwell to have them re- 
established and proper Persons appointed to give the Alarm in case 
of Necessity, but I am not certain but this may interfere with some 
Regulation of the State, which some time ago, put that Matter into 
the Care of the Militia Generals, and it has gone into the Hands 
of the subordinate officers in gradation untill it is nobody's Business.^ 

FROM ONE OF ST. CLAIR'S ORDERLY BOOKS. 

Division Orders, Springfield, February 16 [1780]. 
A corporal and six men to be sent to the Mountain to take 
charge of a piece of ordinance. He will call on Mr. Caldwell at 
Springfield who will give him directions respecting the fixed signals 
to proclaim an alarm.* 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B. HI, pt. 2, 71. 
'Smith's The St. Clair Papers, I, 471. 
'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 35, 238. 
'Connecticut Men in the Revolution, 137. 



LocATUJN OF Alarm Posts 141 

On March nth Washington wrote to Baron de Kalb, 
who had then succeeded St. Clair in command of the post at 
Springfield: 

There were certain Signals established for alarming the Militia 
in case of a serious movement, but I fear they have of late been neg- 
lected and have got out of repair. JVIr. Caldwell can inform you 
better than any person where the Signals were placed and of the 
methods fixed upon for communicating the Alarm to the Country. 
I must request you to apply to him for the necessary information 
upon the subject and to lose no time in having matters so arranged 
that we may upon the shortest notice call in the force of the Coun- 
try. You are not to depend upon the Militia for doing this, but 
send parties to repair any of the signals which may want it. \\m 
will be pleased to communicate any intelligence which may reach 
you as speedily as possible. Be pleased to inform me immediately of 
the situation in which you find the signals from Mr. Caldwell's 
report.' 

Baron de Kalb replied: 

Mr. Caldwell being at Philadelphia I conferred with Colo. 
Jaques, of the Militia of Essex County on the Subject of the Signals 
established for allarming the Country: I here inclose a copy of them 
in all the parts of this State. I understand that those hereabout 
though neglected are not much impaired, I will take care to see 
them repaired in Essex and Middlesex Counties, by the Persons ap- 
pointed thereto. 

Signals on which the Militia are Immediately to Assemble. 

A Large fire on the mountain in the rear of Pluckimin. 

one on the mountain near Steals Gap. 

one on the mountain near Mordicas or Wayn Gap. 

one near Lincolns Gap. 

one near Quibble Town Gap. 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B. XI, pt. I, 44L 



142 History of Chatham 

one on the Hill the road to Baskinridge four miles north of Col. 
Van Horns. 



one on the Hill towards princetown. 



one on the hill in front of martin's Tavern near short hill. 

It is further proposed that preparations should be made to make 
the like signals in the following places in this State — - 

at the point of the mountain north of springfield one mile un- 
der the care of Capt. Gillam. 

On the top of the Hill one mile south East of Chatham Bridge 
under the care of Capt. Horton. 

at Coopers windmill on Long Hill. 

at the point of Kennys Hill at morristown. 

on pidgeon Hill four miles north west of morristown 

on Schuylers mountain N. W. of Pluckimen 12 mile*;. 

on the Hill 10 miles West of Do. 

on the South Point of Cushatunk Hill. 

on the N. W. point of the Southern Hill. 

on the high hill N. W. of flemingtown. 

on the Hyhts of Amwell — looking southward. 

near princeton looking Southward. 

on Carter Hill in monmouth on middleton hill. 

on mount Pleasant.' 

A few days later (March 2ist) Washington wrote to 
De Kalb that the country people refuse to seek safety in 
flight, in case of incursions, until the last moment, so that 
it is necessary to keep a close watch upon the enemy, in 
order to give the Inhabitants timely warning; and although 
Washington does not think that the British would attempt 
anything while the commissioners appointed to negotiate an 
exchange of prisoners are sitting at Amboy, still this is a 
mere opinion, and De Kalb's vigilance must not be relaxed. 
"You will, no doubt, have the signals in the utmost state of 
preparation," he continues, "and keep a small party stationed 
with the alarm-guns below Chatham."^ 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 36, 158. 
'Spark's Writings of Washington, VI, 489. 



Fatality at Short Hills 143 

The only officer having charge of the signal station on 
Hobart Hill whose name has come down to us is Captain 
Joseph Horton of Colonel Moses Jaques' regiment of Essex 
County militia. There is no evidence, however, that he had 
command of this post during the entire war. 

The beacon stood on property owned in Revolutionary 
days by Richard Swain, who is said to have served in 
the army with the rank of gun-master, and who, with one of 
his neighbors, John Pike, was detailed to take charge of 
the alarm gun. On February 25, 1779, upon the occasion of 
a British raid having for its object the surprise of Max- 
well's brigade at Elizabeth and the capture of Governor 
Livingston, the signal gim was discharged, and an accident 
happened which resulted in Pike's death. It was his duty to 
swab the cannon, and in his haste and excitement he failed to 
do this thoroughly. While the gun was being reloaded, a 
premature discharge occurred, and Pike, who was standing 
directly in front of the muzzle, received mortal injuries, 
while Swain lost the thumb of his right hand.^ The ap- 
plication of Pike's widow for a pension is taken from the 
records of the Essex County Court of Quarter Sessions. It 
is dated April 12, 1781. 

Jamima Pike Widow of John Pike, late of the Township of 
Elizabeth Town, deceased, having produced to this Court a Certiii- 
cate from Benjamin Bonnel & Jam;s Campbell, Esq'rs. two of the 
justices of the peace of the county of Essex, living in the township 
of Elizabeth Town, that the sd Jamima Pike was in their belief, 
the lawful Wife and now is the real Widow of the sd John Pike, 
& has her legal residence in the township of Elizabeth Town af'd. 
And the sd Jamima Pike having also produced a Certificate from 
Captain Joseph Horton of Coin Moses Jaquis's Regiment of Essex 
County Militia, setting forth that the sd John Pike was a private 

' The Summit Herald, October 17, 1896. According to a tradition of 
the Swain family, the cannon was placed on the western slope of the hill, 
toward Chatham, and not, as is generally supposed, beside the beacon on 
the summit. 



144 History of Chatham 

in his Company, and was stationed at the Short Hills in the sd 
County of Essex in the Winter of the year 1779, in order to attend 
the Beacon and Alarm Gun placed on the first mountain in the sd 
County, & to fire the same in case of Alarm or Invasion from the 
Enemy, & that on the twenty fifth day of February, in the Year of 
our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine, the Enemy 
having landed a party of men at Elizabeth Town, the sd Alarm 
Gun was ordered to be fired, in doing of which the sd John Pike 
was unfortunately wounded, &: in three days afterwards died of the 
Wounds he then received and prayed a certificate for half pay, &c. ; 
Whereupon the Court considering the above Certificates, certify that 
the said Jamima Pike, is entitled to receive the half pay of a private 
to the artillery, from the sd twenty Eighth day of February afd. 
agreeable to the statute of New Jersey in such Case lately made & 
provided. 

The certificate of the Essex County court was presented 
to the General Assembly on May 23, 1781, whereupon it 
was ordered that a warrant should issue in favor of said 
Jemima Pike for the sum of 25 shillings per month, being the 
amount of her late husband's half pay; she to draw the sum 
from the treasury monthly during her widowhood. 

The alarm gun at Hobart Hill, mentioned in the writ- 
ings of Dr. Ashbel Green, already quoted, was an iron 
eighteen-pounder popularly called "the Old Sow." This 
cannon, however, was not retained here during the entire 
period of the Revolution. Although definite information 
respecting it is lacking, we have reason to believe that it was 
brought to the signal station toward the close of 1777, and 
that it remained but little over two years. The time of its 
arrival is inferred from the following reference contained 
in the minutes of the New Jersey Council of Safety,' under 
date of November 17th, 1777 : 

His Excellency produced to the Board a letter from the Revd. 
'Vol. Ill, 162. 



The Old Sow 145 

Mr. Caldwell to Majr. Genl. Dickinson, dated the 22 October last, 
containing his report to Genl. Dickinson, who had been requested 
by the Board to inform them of the most proper place to fix beacons, 
and appoint alarm posts, by which it appears to the Board most ex- 
pedient to remove the piece of Cannon now lying at Princeton, to the 
mountain that nearly divides the space between Elizabeth and Morris- 
town, to be put under Guard of the Man who lives where the said 
Cannon is to be fixed and a few of his neighbors who ought to be 
exempted from Military Duty ; That it would farther be proper 
to erect a pile on the Hill near where Mr. McGee formerly lived, 
whence the Guard from the said Mountain may see the fire or smoke 
and by that means know that the Guns fired at Elizabeth Town, are 
intended for an alarm & upon that signal fire the Cannon on the 
Mountain: The Council hereupon agreed That Mr. Caldwell 
be desired to carry the above Plan into execution and to transmit 
to the Board an account of the expenses attending the same. 

The origin and meaning of the name "the Old Sow," 
which was applied to the alarm gun on Hobart Hill, 
has been the subject of much speculation and discussion, 
three theories being advanced to explain its significance. 
A supposition which is quite generally entertained 
is that the patriots facetiously compared the sharp, whip-like 
cracks of the muskets to the squealing of little pigs, and the 
deep-throated roar of the signal gun to the grunting of the 
parent beast. Another interpretation is given by Mrs. J. C. 
Elmer of Springfield, in a communication published in the 
Summit Herald of October 31, 1896, namely: that the 
cannon was so called because, not being mounted upon 
a carriage, its recoil when discharged caused it to root up the 
ground. This fact, she added, had been ascertained many 
years before by her husband, who had devoted much 
time to historical research. A third, and perhaps the most 
reasonable, explanation is that suggested by Rev. William 
Hoppaugh of Springfield, a former pastor of the Presby- 
terian church of that place, who points out that iron 
founders apply the name "sow" to the channel which leads 



146 History of Chatham 

from the smelting-furnace to the pig-bed, and also to a piece 
of metal cast in this channel; and he thinks that in the case 
of the alarm gun, the name had reference to its mode of 
manufacture, or to the variety of iron of which it was made. 

Considerable doubt exists concerning the subsequent 
disposition of the "Old Sow." No trustworthy record has 
been found, and traditions are so conflicting as to appear 
unreliable. A cannon was left at Hobart Hill when the war 
was over, and lay upon the ground near the site of the 
beacon for many years — the late Smith Taylor, who lived in 
the neighborhood, used to say that he had often caught rab- 
bits in its barrel, where they had sought shelter during a hunt 
— yet this was not the "Old Sow," but a smaller cannon, a 
six-pounder called the "Crown Prince," which was captured 
from the British at Springfield in 1780. Tradition says that 
the latter gun was used for a time at the signal station in 
place of the "Old Sow"' (though failing to give the date of 
the substitution or the reason for the change), and that the 
original alarm piece was lost overboard from a sloop in 
Newark. Bay, before the cessation of hostilities, and never 
recovered. 

Leaving the realm of tradition for the firmer ground 
of written history, we learn that in the winter of 1780, when 
Washington's army lay at Morristown, a carefully planned, 
though unsuccessful, attempt was made to surprise the 
British outposts on Staten Island. The oflicer In command 
of this expedition, which set out from Morristown on 
Januarv 14th, was Lord Stirling, who, on the eve of his de- 
parture, wrote to General Washington a letter containing 
the following paragraph: 

There is at the short Hills, an Eighteen pounder which we in- 
tend to make use of. She probably is without ammunition. Will 
your Excellency have the goodness to order a supply as expeditiously 

' .As an illuslr.ition of the conflict of traditions, reference is made to 
the assertion that the "Crown Prince" was used as an alarm-piece, not at 
the Short Hills, but upon Kimball Hill near Morristown. 



Thf, Crowx Prixce 147 

as possible? If there are no Eighteen pound shot, twelves will be 
better than none.' 

Although this letter furnishes the reason for a sub- 
stitution of alarm guns on Hobart Hill, it throws no light 
upon the ultimate fate of the "Old Sow." Still, in the 
absence of definite information, we may readily assume that 
the cannon was taken by Lord Stirling on his expedition, 
and that his troops, when driven back from Staten Island, 
were obliged, in their hurried retreat, to leave the gun in 
the hands of the enemy. But as this movement took place 
in the middle of January, and the cannon called the "Crown 
Prince" was not captured from the British until the follow- 
ing June, there was an interval of five months during which 
the signal station must have been supplied with a third 
alarm piece, the identity of which cannot be ascertained. 

Regarding the later history of the "Crown Prince" 
there is no such uncertainty. It remained near the site of 
the beacon until 1818, when General Benonl Hathaway of 
Morristown, who had won renown in the Revolution, 
presented it in charge to Lieutenant-Colonel William Brittin, 
then commanding the First or "Middle" regiment of Morris 
County militia. The latter removed the gun to his home in 
Madison, and placed it in his barn. Thereafter it was used 
for the firing of salutes in patriotic celebrations, being fre- 
quently borrowed for this purpose by the people of Chat- 
ham, New Providence, and other neighboring towns. At 
length it was taken to Morristown, where its booming an- 
nounced the arrival of General Lafayette on his visit of 
1825. It soon became the fashion to fire the cannon at 
political meetings, and it was frequently stolen and concealed 
by both Whigs and Democrats. At one time it was carried 
about a mile out of town, spiked, and buried in the ground 
for a year or more; either to prevent its use by the opposite 
political party, or to preclude its return to Madison; as the 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 35, 88. 



148 History of Chatham 

rivalry for its possession ran high between the two munl- 
cipahties. Upon another occasion it was thrown into the 
pond of the grist-mill on Speedwell Avenue for similar 
reasons. About 1835 it was taken up to Fort Nonsense, 
and a deliberate attempt was made to burst it, by 
loading it with a double charge of powder, filling it with 
stones and sods well rammed down, and then burying it 
in the ground with the muzzle downwards. A slow match 
was applied, and a tremendous explosion ensued; but it was 
found that the gun had simply kicked itself out of the 
ground, and was entirely uninjured. 

In 1 87 1, when the monument was erected in the park 
to the memory of the Morris County soldiers who fell 
during the Civil War, the "Crown Prince" was mounted upon 
a carriage made at the Speedwell iron works, and placed 
in front of it. This position, however, was not considered 
particularly appropriate, for the gun had no connection with 
the War of the Rebellion, and on October 9, 1890, it was 
presented to the Washington Association of New Jersey by 
William Jackson Brittin of Madison, a son of Colonel 
Brittin, whose family still regarded it as their property; 
when, with the consent of the town and county authorities, 
and the approval of the local Post of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, it was removed to the grounds of Washington's 
Headquarters, where it may now be seen.' 

The pole supporting the tar-barrel remained for 
several years after the close of the Revolutionary War. 
Upon its removal, the hole in which it had stood was filled 
with stones, and continued to be plainly visible until 1896, 
when the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution decided to mark the spot, and preserve its his- 
toric memories, by the erection of a monument. For this 
purpose the society chose an unhewn boulder weighing about 
three tons, which was presented by Hon. Nathaniel Niles 

' The Jerseyman, October 10 and 17, 1890. 




THE "CKOWN PRIXTE" 



Old Sow Monument 149 

of Madison, upon whose lands it was found; and it was 
placed upon a foundation of solid masonry covering the site 
of the beacon, with a handsome bronze tablet, bearing an 
appropriate inscription, riveted upon its face. 

1776 

HERE IN THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION 

STOOD THE SIGNAL BEACON AND BY ITS 

SIDE THE CANNON KNOWN AS 

"THE OLD SOW" 

WHICH IN TIME OF DANGER AND INVASION 

SUMMONED THE PATRIOTIC 

"MINUTE MEN" 

OF THIS VICINITY TO THE DEFENSE OF THE 

COUNTRY AND THE REPULSE OF THE INVADER. 



THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY THE NEW JERSEY SOCIETY OF THE 

SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND DEDICATED TO 

THE MEMORY OF THE PATRIOTS OF NEW JERSEY. 

1896 

October 19, 1896, the anniversary of the surrender at 
Yorktown, was the day set apart for the dedication of the 
monument. The ceremonies began with the unveiling of a 
shaft in the Revolutionary cemetery at Springfield, followed 
by appropriate services in the Presbyterian church of that 
village; and the members of the society, accompanied by 
their guests, then proceeded to the summit of Hobart Hill 
to dedicate the monument on the site of the signal station. 
The committee in charge consisted of A. W. Bray, William 
M. Dean, John Farr, H. P. Toler, H. J. Barrell, WiUiam P. 
Tuttle and James C. Holden. According to the statement 
of contemporary newspapers, the spectators numbered one 
thousand, which, allowing for the exaggeration common to 
such reports, may be understood as meaning about two 
hundred and fifty. Among those present were repre- 



150 History of Chatham 

sentatives of many patriotic societies, including the 
Daughters of the American Revolution, the Society of 
Colonial Wars, the Order of Founders and Patriots of 
America, the Washington Association of New Jersey, and 
the New Jersey Historical Society. A speaker's stand had 
been erected near the monument, and the neighboring trees 
were tastefully draped with the national colors. 

The exercises were simple but impressive. The open- 
ing address was delivered by John Whitehead, the venerable 
president of the society, and he was followed by William P. 
Tuttle, who, in a scholarly and carefully prepared speech, 
reviewed the circumstances under which the signal station 
was established, described the beacon and alarm gun, and 
related several interesting anecdotes connected with the 
Revolutionary history of the spot. 

At the time of the erection of the monument there were 
two persons still living who remembered having seen the tar- 
barrel surmounting the lofty pole, which remained long after 
the war. One was Mrs. Experience Swain of Summit, 
then eighty-six years old (a daughter-in-law of Richard 
Swain, the Revolutionary gun-master), and the other was 
Mrs. Nancy D. Gardiner of Chatham, who was born in 
1802 and had therefore attained the age of ninety-four. 
The latter used to say that the tar-barrel, which overtopped 
the tallest trees upon the ridge, could be plainly seen from 
her window in Chatham, and that it was not removed until 
she was more than twenty years of age.^ 

The land upon which the monument was placed be- 
longed at the time to the late Dr. William H. Risk of 
Summit. Unfortunately the society did not purchase the 
property, but merely obtained the doctor's permission to put 
the boulder there, with his assurance that it would not be 
disturbed during his lifetime. At a later date, an effort was 

'The Summit Herald, October 17, 1896; T/ie Madison Eagle, Novem- 
ber 20, 1896. 



The Monument Removed 



151 



made by a Summit newspaper to interest the public in secur- 
ing the title to the lot, either by some society or by the 
municipality, so that the future of the monument might 
he assured; but sufficient interest in the project could not be 
aroused, and after the death of Dr. Risk the land was sold 
to Henry B. Twombly, who removed the boulder, and built 
a handsome residence upon the spot where the beacon stood. 
The bronze tablet mentioned above has been preserved, and 
now adorns the wall enclosing Mr. Twombly's door-yard. 

One of the cannons captured from the French in tlie siege of LouisburR was called "the 
Old Sow." — Harper's Magaoitic, XXV, '>il6. The rarity of the name suggests that this 
was tlie gun of the same appellation afterward used as an alarm-piece on Hobart Hill. 
We may readily surmise that it was brought to New Jersey by some of the colonial 
trooi'S in the French and Indian War. A British cannon employed in the defense of 
Quebec in tile Revolution, and afterward captured hy the .Americans, is now preserved 
at Elizabeth, N. J., and the gun of Louisburg may have made a similar journey. 




CHAPTER VII 

Operations in the Autumn of 1776 — Gen. Washington's Retreat to 
the Delaware — Local Militia Assembled — Gen. Lee takes Post 
at Chatham — Brief Sketch of his Career — His Insubordination 
— The British try to Jleach Chatham — First Battle at Spring- 
field — Arrival of Col. Vose's Detachment from Ticonderoga — 
Threatened Advance by the British upon Morristown — Gen. 
Maxwell takes Command of the Local Troops. 

THE village of Chatham first appears prominently in 
Revolutionary history during the autumn of 1776. 
Although many of the patriots of this vicinity had enlisted 
and rendered active service at an earlier date, and the 
villagers had thus been brought in touch with the struggle 
for liberty, the actual fighting up to this time had been more 
or less remote, and they had had no reason to fear for their 
personal safety. But following the operations in the neigh- 
borhood of New York during 1776, the scene of hostilities 
was suddenly transferred to New Jersey; the American 
army was driven back to the Delaware River, leaving this 
portion of the State entirely exposed to the ravages of the 
enemy; the first engagement at Springfield occurred in an 
attempt on the part of the British to reach Chatham; and 
the people of this village found the war brought almost to 
their doors. 

This was perhaps the darkest period of the Revolution. 
The disastrous campaign on Long Island closed with the 
abandonment of New York, and was shortly followed by 
the defeat at White Plains, the loss of Fort Washington, 
and the evacuation of Fort Lee. The patriots of New 
Jersey were thoroughly disheartened, and regarded their 
cause as practically lost; many who had previously been 



Washington's Retreat 153 

loud in their protestations of loyalty to the colonies now 
seeking the protection of the British authorities, anci renew- 
ing their allegiance to the crown. Washington found his 
army decreasing almost daily, through desertions, and the 
withdrawal of troops whose term of enlistment had expired; 
and. being unable to gather recruits to fill his depleted ranks, 
he was compelled, by a superior force, to commence his 
memorable retreat from the Hudson to the Delaware, leav- 
ing the eastern part of New Jersey at the mercy of the 
enemy, who followed closely in his rear.' For, although 
one detachment of Americans had remained at North Castle, 
a second at fort Washington and a third at Peekskill, they 
were not sufficiently numerous to protect the inhabitants of 
this region. 

Perceiving that a British invasion of New Jersey was 
imminent, Washington had written from White Plains to 
Governor Livingston, as early as the 7th of November, 
urging the necessity of preparing the militia to take the 
place of the New Jersey troops whose term was about to 
expire, and of warning the inhabitants living near the water 
to hold themselves in readiness to remove their stock, grain 
and personal effects upon the earliest notice. He pointed out 
the value of forage to the enemy, and advised that what 
could not be removed with convenience should be destroyed 
without the least hesitation. - 

Governor Livingston promptly issued instructions 
respecting the calling out of the militia to cover Washing- 
ton's retreat, and to assist in attempting to check the advance 
of the British. Matthias Williamson, at that time brigadier- 
general of the New Jersey militia, to whom the governor's 
instructions were addressed, wrote as follows to Colonel 

' In order to expedite this retreat, Washington divided his army into 
two columns, one of which passed through Springfield, within five miles 
of Chatham. — Mellick's The Story of an Old Farm, Jjo. 

•Hatfield's Elizabeth, 446. 



1^4 History of Chatham 

Jacob Ford, Jr., of Morristown, under date of November 
26th: 

Sir: 

By express just now received from his Excellency Governor 
Livingston, I am desired to call out all the militia of the State ; there- 
fore on receipt hereof, you are ordered to bring out all the militia in 
your County immediately, and to march them down to Elizabeth- 
town and see that each man is furnished with a gun, and all his 
ammunition, accutrements, blanket, and four days' provision, and 
when they arrive to join their respective companies and regiments. 

I am, sir, your humble servant, 

M. Williamson 

P. S. 

Sir: 

You will please to send two men off to your County, express, 
with your orders to have these orders immediately put into execution. 
Order the express to call on me, to take a letter to Sussex.^ 

Williamson wrote to Washington from Morristown 
on December 8th that, pursuant to the governor's instruc- 
tions, he had issued orders to the commanders of militia to 
draw out their battalions and join either Washington's army 
or his own troops as most contiguous. He added that very 
few of Essex and Bergen had responded, as many of the 
inhabitants of those counties, who had been thought staunch 
Whigs, had now forsaken the American cause; and that al- 
though Colonel Symmes of Sussex had joined, the number 
of his privates was inconsiderable; so that the force at 
Morristown consisted principally of a regiment of Morris 
County militia, numbering perhaps 800 officers and men, 
under Colonel Ford, to whose zeal and influence with the 
people the preparations for defence at that place were 
chiefly due. He continued: 

Colonel Ford has had tlie command since we arrived here. I 
'American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1120. 



The Militia Assembled i^r 

took so great a cold on the late march, which fell into my limbs, as 
has in a great measure confined me to my room, and disabled me from 
joming the brigade. I rode out yesterday about four miles to Pas- 
saick,' our chief post, and taking fresh cold, am now entirely confined 
to my room.- 

A brigade of militia was soon assembled, consisting of 
the Morris County regiment under Colonel Ford, who was 
the brigade commandant, a battalion from Sussex County 
under Colonel John Cleve Symmes, and a battalion from 
Essex County under Oliver Spencer, who had previously 
served as major in the First Essex regiment, and was now 
appomted to this brigade with the rank of lieutenant-colonel 
The force numbered in all about i,ooo men, who, marching 
from Morristown through Chatham, took post in the neigh- 
borhood of Springfield to watch the movements of the 
enemy.^ 

While these events were in progress, Chatham was 
visited by General Charles Lee, who paused here for a few 
days m the course of his march through northern New 
Jersey to join the army of Washington. 

General Lee is a romantic, but by no means pleasing 
character of Revolutionary history. Though a resident of 
Virgmia at the time of which we write, he was in no way 
related to the celebrated family of the same name in that 
State. He is variously described by his many biographers 
as an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Welshman, the weight 
of authority giving Cheshire, England, as his birthplace, and 
theyear 1 731 as the date of his nativity.^ He was an im- 
perious, quarrelsome and vindictive man, tall, lank and 
hollow-cheeked, with a discontented expression of counten- 

' Chatham. 

'American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1120. 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 450; Gales's Spencer. 
T JJ°^^u' ^'" 1,°/^'" ""^ ""'"'"'ion. "■ 350; Paulding's Washington 
'k^iJtc^'^t'^^^: ''' ''■' ^°y^'^ S-"-' 10^ f Belcher's lirs; 



156 History of Chatham 

ance; slovenly in dress, boorish in manner, and coarse, vulgar 
and profane in speech. In temper he was sour and morose; 
but, although he scarcely ever laughed, and seldom smiled, 
he possessed a cynical wit, and delighted in making sarcastic 
and insulting remarks in his harsh, rough voice. One of 
his most marked characteristics was an extreme fondness for 
dogs, and he was accompanied by three or four of these 
animals upon all occasions.^ 

But with all his faults, Lee was a brilliant, dashing 
officer of unquestionable ability, being regarded by the 
English and by many Americans as the most talented general 
in the Continental army. A soldier from his youth, he had 
fought in many countries and under several flags. He 
obtained a commission in the British army, through family 
influence, when only eleven years of age. At twenty-four he 
commanded a grenadier company of the Forty-fourth regi- 
ment during the French and Indian War, at which time the 
Mohawk Indians adopted him into their tribe, giving him the 
very appropriate name of "Boiling Water." As a colonel, he 
fought under General Burgoyne in the war with Spain, dis- 
tinguishing himself in the campaign in Portugal. For two 
years he was attached to the staff of the King of Poland, 
and in 1769 he was appointed a major-general of the Rus- 
sian army, serving in the war with the Turks. He is after- 
wards heard of in Hungary, France and Switzerland, where 
his irascible and pugnacious temperament involved him in 
frequent quarrels, brawls and duels." 

At an early period of his career Lee became interested 
in English politics, taking a stand strongly opposed to the 
party then in power. Through anger and disappointment 
at failing to obtain promotion in the British army, he fiercely 
attacked the ministry in the columns of the press, and for a 

' Fiske's American Revolution, I, 152; Sear's Pictorial Revolution, 275; 
Abbott's Washington, 299. 

= Mellick's The Story of an Old Farm, 337; Doyle's Steuben, 105; 
Schroeder's Washington, II, 34. 




MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES LEE 
From a drawing by Barliam Ruslihronke in Girdlest 
Author of Junius. Though designed as a caricature, 
ny Lees acquaintances to be "the onl 
of his countenance or person." 



one's Lee the 

it was declareci 

successful delineation either 



Gen. Lee's Career 157 

time was suspected of being the author of the famous Junius 
letters which appeared in 1769. Coming to America shortly 
before the Revolution, he heartily espoused the cause of 
the patriots, not through sympathy with the principles in- 
volved, but rather for personal aggrandizement, and to 
gratify his animosity toward the home government. He 
soon became an acknowledged leader of the colonists, who 
were impressed by his military record, awed by his brag- 
gadocio, and misled by his infinite self-confidence; and upon 
the outbreak of hostilities he was commissioned a major- 
general by the Continental Congress. In marked contrast 
with the unselfish devotion of the patriots, whose labors and 
sacrifices in the cause of freedom were offered without 
thought of recompense, Lee's cupidity demanded a payment 
by Congress of $30,000 to compensate him for the for- 
feiture of his estate in England, which, as Trevelyan points 
out, was neither a rich nor an unencumbered possession, and 
for the surrender of the half pay which he drew as a retired 
British officer. .He aspired to the position of commander-in- 
chief, and was intensely chagrined at being outranked by 
General Washington and General Artemas Ward.' 

When the army crossed the Hudson after the defeat at 
White Plains, Lee's division remained on the east side of 
that river. During the retreat to the Delaware, Washington 
considered his situation to be so critical that Lee's support 
was most urgently needed; and in the course of his march he 
wrote from Hackinsack, Newark, New Brunswick and 
Trenton, desiring that officer to follow and join him as 
quickly as possible. Lee, however, was extremely tardy in 
obeying these orders. His command on the Hudson was 
practically independent, and he had no wish to merge it in 
the forces of Washington, whom he regarded with envy and 
contempt. He accordingly returned evasive answers to the 
latter's dispatches, pretending to misunderstand his instruc- 

' Doyle's Steuben, 105; Trevelyan's American Revolution, Part 2, II, 45. 



158 History of Chatham 

tions, disputing his warnings of the gravity of the situation, 
and urging the greater advantages of some different line of 
action. He lingered from November 17th to December 
2nd, debating whether to obey the commands of Washing- 
ton and join in the retreat, or to await the arrival of rein- 
forcements from the north. He at length decided to 
follow the army, crossing the Hudson at King's Ferry, and 
malving a detour by way of Morristown in order to avoid the 
enemy; but, despite Washington's earnest appeals to hasten, 
he moved as slowly as possible, and did not arrive in the 
neighborhood of Chatham until the 8th of December. Con- 
tinuing his leisurely progress, he reached Basking Ridge on 
the I 2th, where he was taken prisoner the next morning by 
a party of British cavalry on a tour of observation from 
New Brunswick. 

Lee's force was made up of McDougall's brigade, in- 
cluding the Fourth Rhode Island, the Seventh Connecticut, 
the First and Third New York, and the First Maryland; 
and Nixon's brigade, consisting of the First, Second and 
Third Rhode Island, and the Second, Sixth and Twelfth 
Massachusetts.' They numbered somewhat less than 3,000 
men, who are said to have been as good soldiers as any in 
the American army; but they had been exposed to the 
greatest hardships and privations, and some, unable to 
endure the fatigues of the march, had been left at 
Haverstraw, while those who remained fit for duty 
were so destitute of shoes that in some places their route 
might have been traced by bloody footprints upon the rough 
and frozen ground.' They marched in column of fours and 
in route step; each man carrying his gun as he pleased. 
Thirty men of Nixon's regiment constituted an advance 
guard, and flankers marched in single file upon either side; 
while Glover's regiment acted as a reserve, prepared to draw 

' Gardner's The Rhode Island Line in the Continental Army, 4. 
' Heath's Memoirs, 96. 



Arrinal uf Lee 



159 



out of the column in case of 
sudden attack, and to form 
one hundred yards in the 
rear. The soldiers wore no 
uniform, but were dressed 
in hunting-shirts and rough 
linsey-woolsey suits; their 
officers, as a rule, being 
distinguished only by a sash 
or a corded or cockaded 
hat. Each man possessed 
a powder-horn suspended 
from one shoulder, while a 
bullet-pouch hung from the 
other; but they observed no 
uniformity of weapons, 
which included muskets, 
rifles and fowling-pieces of 
various sizes and patterns.' 
On the day of his arri- 
val at Morristown, Lee indited a letter to the commander- 
in-chief, advocating in the following terms the establishing of 
a post at Chatham : 




RIi\ lU.L TinNARV POWDER-HORN 



Morris-Town, December \e Stii. 1776. 
Dear General : 

Colonel Humpton will give \ou a return (if the Militia already 
assembled, and of those (if it can be called a return) expected. The 
whole will, as it is said, make by tomorrow morning one thousand. 
My corps, that passed the North River will amount (for we are con- 
siderably diminished) to seven and twenty hundred; in fact our Army 
may be estimated at four thousand. If I was not taught to think that 
your army was considerably reinforced, I should immediately join you ; 
but as I am assured you are very strong, I should imagine we can 

' Mellick's The Siory of an Old Farm, 332, 340. 



i6o History of Chatham 

make a better impression by hanging on their rear; for which pur- 
pose, a good post at Chatham seems the best calculated. It is at a 
happy distance from Newark, Elizabeth Town, Woodbridge, and 
Boundbrook. It will annoy, distract, and consequently weaken 'em. 
As to your Excellenq''s idea of surprising Brunswick, the post I pro- 
pose taking offers the greatest probability of success. But we are so 
ill shod and destitute of light-horse that this desultory war is hard 
upon the poor soldiers; but must do 'em the justice to say that they 
have noble spirits and will, I have no doubt, render great service to 
their country. 

God bless you, General. 

Yours, most sincerely, 

Charles Lee. 
To his Excellency, General Washington, 
Trenton.' 

A similar letter, practically a duplicate of the above, 
was written at the same time to Congress.' 

In accordance with the plan thus indicated, and in total 
disregard of Washington's imperatis^e commands to follow 
and join him without loss of time, Lee took post at Chatham 
on the same day. It would be interesting to know where 
he established his headquarters in the village, but no positive 
information upon this point has been obtained. It is highly 
probable that he stopped at one of the commodious taverns, 
where he could readily secure ample accommodation for his 
retinue as well as suitable quarters for himself; but, on the 
other hand, he might have felt that, for a prolonged sojourn 
in the village, lodgings in some private house would be more 
comfortable and agreeable. A history of Morris County 
compiled by the Lewis Historical Publishing Company 
in 1914 places Lee's headquarters at Day's tavern, 
but gives no authority for the statement. The only 
contemporary reference to the subject which the writer of 

' N. Y. Historical Society Collections, Lee Papers, H, 336. 
'American Archives, Ser. 5, HI, 1121. 



Capture of Lee i6i 

these pages has found is contained in a letter written by 
Robert Morris to Silas Deane, announcing Lee's captinx" 
by the British, and erroneously giving Chatham, in- 
stead of Basking Ridge, as the scene of this misfortune.' 
The general was betrayed, he wrote, while lodged at a 
farm house after passing a place called Chatham near 
Elizabeth Town — a mistake which may be explained by the 
assumption that Morris had heard from Lee while at 
Chatham, and thought that he had remained here up to the 
time of his capture. Lee was stopping at a tavern near 
Basking Ridge when he fell into the hands of the enemy; 
and from Morris's reference to a farm house, we may per- 
haps venture to assume that while at Chatham the general 
established himself in some private dwelling. Still, 
probability favors a hotel as his stopping-place. 

Finding Lee so dilatory, Washington looked about for 
other troops who could be summoned to his support without 
too greatly weakening the posts at which they were stationed. 
There was a small detachment of the Massachusetts Con- 
tinental line at Ticonderoga who had been engaged with the 
enemy under Carleton; but as the latter had now retired to 
Canada for winter quarters, their presence in that region was 
no longer needed,- and Washington directed them to march 
forward and join him on the Delaware River. This de- 
tachment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph 
Vose. On the day that Lee established himself at Chatham, 
a letter was dispatched to him by General Heath at Peeks- 
kill, announcing that Vose had arrived from Albany on the 
preceding day, and that he (Heath) had advised him to 
follow Lee immediately."' The latter was greatly pleased to 
learn of the approach of these reinforcements, and he 

'American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1333; Diplomatic Correspondence, 1, 
171. A similar mistake was afterwards made by Geneial Heath in his 
Memoirs, p. 99. 

" Spark's Washington, 204. 

* American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1123. 



1 62 History of Chatham 

hastened to pen the following answer, the tone of which 
indicates a disposition to attach the Ticonderoga troops to 
his own command, although Washington had issued no 
orders to that effect, but, on the contrary, had directed these 
regiments to hasten to his support. 

Chatham, December ye 9th. 1776. 
Dear General : 

I am ver>' much obliged to you for your welcome tidings, and 
have only to beg that you will direct the regiments you speak of to 
march without loss of time to Morris Town. I sent an express to 
you last night from the General, ordering your division over the 
river, which, I confess for my own part, I am heartily sorry for, as 
I think we shall be strong enough without you, and New England, 
with your district, will be too bare of troops. I am in hopes here to 
reconquer (if I may so e.xpress myself) the Jerseys. It was really in 
the hands of the enemy before my arrival. 

Adieu, dear sir. 

Charles Lee. 
To Major-General Heath, 
Peekskill.' 

We shall have occasion to mention the Ticonderoga 
troops later on. 

Scarcely had Lee completed his arrangements for post- 
ing his command at Chatham, when he received a further 
communication from Washington, repeating his instructions 
to march foward. It read as follows: 

Trenton Falls, December lOtii. 1776. 
Dear Sir: 

I last night received your favor by Colonel Humpton ; and were 
it not for the weak and feeble state of the force I have, I should 
highly approve of your hanging on the rear of the enemy and estab- 

' American Archives, Ser. 5, HI, 1138. 



Lee's Insubordination 163 

lishing the post you mention. But when my situation is directly 
opposite to what you suppose it to be, and when General Howe is 
pressing for^vard with the whole of his army except the troops that 
were lately embarked, and a few besides left at New York, to possess 
himself of Philadelphia, I cannot but request and entreat you, and 
this too by the advice of all the General officers with me, to march 
and join me with all your whole force with all possible expedition. 
The utmost exertions that can be made will not be more than suf- 
ficient to save Philadelphia. Without the aid of your force, I think 
there is little, if any, prospect of doing it. I refer you to the route 
Major Hoops would inform you of. The enemv are now extended 
along the Delaware at several places. By a prisoner who was taken 
last night, I am told that at Pennytown there are two battalions of 
Infantry, three of Grenadiers, the Hessian Grenadiers, forty second 
Highlanders, and two others. Their object, doubtless, is to 'pass the 
river above us, or to prevent your joining me. I mention this that 
you may avail yourself of the information. Do come on. ^'our 
arrival may be happy; and if it can be effected without delay, may 
be the means of preserving a cit\- whose loss must prove of the most 
fatal consequences to the cause of America. 
I am, &c. 

~ -^ Go. W.ASHIXGTON. 

lo Major General Lee. 

P. S.: 

Pray exert your inHuence and bring with you all the Jersey 
Militia you possibly can. Let them not suppose their State is lost 
or in any danger, because the enemy are pushing through it If you 
think General St. Clair or General Maxwell would be of service to 
command 'em, I would send either.' 

Lee, however, was most reluctant to abandon his post 
at Chatham, and he dispatched a reply, in which he en- 
deavored to palliate his insubordination by disputing 
Washington's conclusions as to the enemy's apparent pur- 
pose. He wrote : 

'New York Historical Society Collections, Lee Papers, II, '341. 



1 64 History of Chatham 

Chatham, December ye 8th., 1776. 

Dear General : 

Major Hoops has just delivered to me your Excellency's letter. 
I am certainly shocked to hear that your force is so inadequate to 
the necessity of your situation, as I had been taught to think you 
had been considerably reinforced. Your last letters proposing a plan 
of surprises and forced marches convinced me that there was no 
danger of your being obliged to pass the Delaware; in consequence of 
which proposals I have put myself in a position the most convenient 
to co-operate with you by attacking their rear. 

I cannot persuade myself that Philadelphia is their object at 
present, as it is almost certain that their whole troops late embarked 
have directed their course to the Eastern Provinces; for Spencer writes 
me word that half of it turned the southwestern end of Long Island 
and started Eastward. I detached Colonel Warner and Mons. Mal- 
madie to take direction of the Rhode Island troops, who are without 
even the figure of a General. It will be difficult, I am afraid, to 
join i,ou; but cannot I do you more service by attacking their rear? 
I sliall look about me tomorrow and inform you further. 
I am, dear General, yours, 

Charles Lee.^ 
To his Excellency, General Washington 

On the iith Washington again wrote to Lee from 
Trenton Falls, acknowledging the receipt of the above letter, 
and stating that the occupation of Philadelphia was beyond 
all question the enemy's object, which nothing less than 
the utmost efforts of the Americans could prevent. He re- 
peated his assertion that his own force was entirely in- 
adequate, and entreated Lee to push forward with every 
possible succour.- On the same day he wrote to the presi- 
dent of Congress : 

**»»«* J received another letter from General 
Lee last evening, it was dated at Chatham, which I take to be near 

' American Archives, Ser. 5, HI, 1122. 
'American Archives, Ser. 5, HI, 1166. 



Lee's Treachery 165 

Morristown, the 8th. of this month. He had then received ni\- letter 
sent by Major Hoops, but seemed still inclined to hang on the enemy's 
rear; to which I should have no objection, had I sufficient force to 
oppose them in front ; but as I have not at present, nor do I see much 
probability of further reinforcement, I have wrote to him in the 
most pressing terms to join me with all e\pediti(]ii.' 

Various reasons ha\e been assigned for Lee's conduct. 
That he was intensely jealous of Washington, and con- 
sidered himself far better qualified for the supreme com- 
mand, is clearly indicated by the tone of his correspondence 
of the period, much of which has been preserved, and by the 
criticisms of his superior in which he freely indulged"'; but 
this of itself would scarcely account for his disobedience. It 
is conjectured that he sought to prolong his independent 
command in hopes of finding an opportunity, by some bril- 
liant achievement, to greatly increase his prestige and 
popularity, and by this means to supplant Washington; and 
it has even been suggested that he withheld his support in the 
expectation that the latter would suffer an overwhelming 
defeat, and that he himself would then be the choice of 
Congress for the rank he coveted; for General Ward's 
resignation had left him second in command, and there 
is little doubt that Washington's death or capture would 
have brought about the realization of his fond ambition. 
But aside from the fact that his force was so imperatively 
needed on the Delaware, there can be no question that his 
plan of taking post at Chatham, or in some neighboring 
village, and harassing the enemy's rear, was a good one. 
The British line of communication, extending across the 
entire State, was so long that it could not be effectually 
guarded, and was particularly exposed to attack; and had 
Lee carried out his plan of cutting it. Lord Howe would have 

"American .Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1166 

" He once expressed the opinion that Washington was not fit to command 
a sergeant's guard. — Boudinot's Elias Boudinol, I, 145, 



1 66 History of Chatham 

found himself in a position of imminent danger. This fact 
was thoroughly appreciated by the British general, and the 
presence of so formidable a body of American troops in his 
rear caused him much anxiety.' 

It was not long, however, before Lee decided to 
abandon his post at Chatham, for the probable reason 
that he dared not further disregard the commands of his 
superior. His stay in this village was limited to three or 
four days; and on December nth we find him again in 
Morristown, prepared to continue his march, and, notwith- 
standing Washington's explicit instructions as to the route to 
be followed, writing to the latter that he had sent forward 
two officers, one to ascertain where the Delaware could best 
be crossed above Trenton, and the other to examine the road 
toward Burlington, with a view of crossing the river by 
the ferry below that town. He in a measure excused his 
delay by stating that the 3,000 men of his command were so 
ill shod that they had been obliged to wait two days for want 
of shoes. - 

Upon the occupation of Elizabeth by the British in their 
pursuit of Washington's retreating army, the patriots of that 
city were obliged to leave their homes and seek safety in the 
hilly region bordering the Passaic River above Chatham. 
Among them was Rev. James Caldwell, pastor of the Pres- 
byterian church at Elizabeth, who established a temporary 
residence at Turkey, now New Providence. This gentleman, 
as an army chaplain, was in close touch with the operations 
of the troops, and kept himself well informed of the move- 
ments and apparent designs of the enemy. Having heard 
from General Lee soon after the latter's departure from 
Chatham, he sent him the following information, which he 
felt sure would prove of value : 

'Abbott's Washington, 300; Fiske's American Revolution, I, 221; 
Moore's The Treason of Charles Lee. 

' N. Y. Historical Society Collections, Lee Papers, U, 345. 



Letter of James Caldwell 167 

Turkey, December 12, 1776. 
Dear Sir: 

I thank you for }our favour from Baskingridge, of this morning, 
and I intended to do myself the honour to wait upon you, and set out 
for the purpose, but found my horse would not perform the journey 
with sufficient expedition, and cannot procure another horse. And 
indeed I find this the best place to observe the enemy's motions. From 
sundry persons who ha\e been upon the road, between Brunswick and 
Princeton, I learn the Army has very generally marched forward; 
indeed, all except guards of the several posts. Yesterday they sent a 
reinforcement to Elizabeth Town from Amboy, of near one thousand. 
Some say the whole at Elizabeth Town are about one thousand ; others 
say fifteen hundred. They are carrying off the hay from Elizabeth 
Town to New York I believe Elizabeth Town is their strong- 
est post, as they were afraid of our Militia, who have taken off many 
of the most active Tories, made some prisoners, and among others shot 
their English Foragemaster, so that he is mortally or very illy wound- 
ed. A company of our Militia went last night to Woodbridge, and 
brought off the drove of stock the enemy had collected there, consist- 
ing of about four hundred cattle and two hundred sheep. Most of 
these cattle are only fit for stock. Colonel Ford begs your directions 
what to do with them. I advised that those not fit to kill should be 
sold, recording the marks, that whig owners might receive the money 
for which they sell respectively. It will cost more than the value of 
them to keep them in a flock. The)- are driven up the country to 
be out of the enemy's way, and the Colonel will follow your direc- 
tions as to the disposition of them. 

At a Council of the Field Officers this morning, a majority of 
them advised to remove the brigade of Militia back again to Chatham, 
for which they assign these reasons. Many of the Militia, rather 
fond of plunder and adventure, kept a continual scouting, which kept 
out so many detached parties, that the body was weakened ; and the 
enemy being now stronger at Elizabeth T.nvn than they are, they 
thought they would better serve the cause by lying at Chatham till 
the expected army approaches for their support. 

Colonel Ford also desires your directions with respect to the 
arms, horses, and other property taken with any of the enemy. The 
parties who take them think themselves entitled to these things. 



1 68 History of Chatham 

I enclose you some examinations. Colonel P'ord tiiinks, fvom 
the circumstances of the wagons taken up at Brunswick to go to 
Morristown and Trenton, that the enemy intended to retreat. I 
hope their retreat will be guarded against. I have very much sus- 
pected as soon as our whole Army is over the river they will return 
and reduce this Province, leaving only part of their Army at the 
river to prevent ours returning, till they have plundered us at their 
pleasue. 

With every kind wish for your prosperity, dear sir, your un- 
feigned friend and most obedient humble servant, 

J.AMES Caldwell. 
The Honourable General Lee. 

P. S.: 

I have sent you Jacob Vincent and two or three Light Horse 
in whom you can depend.^ 

The militia referred to by Mr. Caldwell was Colonel 
Ford's brigade, which had been stationed in the neighbor- 
hood of Springfield and Connecticut Farms. After their 
withdrawal to Chatham, a letter was written by Colonel 
Symmes to General Heath, which throws light upon their 
condition and circumstances. It reads: 

Chatham, December 16th. 1776. 
Sir, 

I beg leave to represent to your Honour the distressed situation 
we are in with respect to salt. The brigade at this place has been 
destitute of that article some dajs. The men suffer exceedingly and 
we have information of there being salt at Hackinsack, Second River, 
and Newark. As we understand your Honour takes that route, we 
beg the favour of a party's advancing from your Army on the road, 
and gathering all the salt to be had. Wagons can be pressed on the 
road to bring it forward. Captain Harker waits upon your Honour 
with this. His orders are to await your pleasure, until we can be 
acquainted with the success of the undertaking. If salt can possibly 

' N. Y. Historical Society Collections, Lee Papers, II, 346, 



Advance of the British 169 

be sent to our relief, I beg your Honour will interest yourself in the 
affair. 

I have the honour to be, Sir, 

your Honour's most obedient humble servant, 

John Cleve Svmmes. 

Colonel of Sussex Militia. 
Major-General Heath, near Hackinsack.^ 

This brigade of militia had rendered \ery efficient ser- 
vices, and had inflicted considerable injury upon the British 
in a series of skirmishes near Elizabeth and Woodbridge, 
attacking their convoys, and killing or capturing their forag- 
ing parties; and it is said that Lord Howe himself, while 
engaged in the pursuit of Washington, narrowly escaped 
capture by a scouting party at Piscataway. Learning that 
the militia had their base at Chatham, that Lee had taken 
post here, and that Heath was moving in this direction, the 
British commander decided to attack the village, and ter- 
minate the operations of the Americans in this quarter. 
Accordingly he detached Brigadier-General Leslie at Bonum- 
town, about the middle of December, to march upon Chat- 
ham and disperse the rebels who were gathered there. 
Leslie proceeded to Elizabeth and approached Chatham by 
way of Springfield. 

A sudden activity among the English was observed 
and promptly reported by the scouts of General Heath, 
who wrote to Washington from Hackensack on December 
15th that several thousand British troops had landed at 
Elizabeth on the preceding day.' It was not long before the 
alarming intelligence of the enemy's advance reached 
Chatham. This was the first experience that the people of 
the village had had in actual warfare, and we can readily 
imagine their excitement and terror upon learning of Leslie's 

'.American .Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1247. 
-Hattield's Elizabeth, 451. 



170 History of Chatham 

approach. Definite information as to his numerical strength 
could not be obtained; and it was extremely uncertain 
whether the New Jersey militia, who alone opposed him, 
could succeed in overcoming the well-disciplined British 
troops, for whose prowess our ancestors entertained a 
Avholesome regard. 

Leslie set out from Elizabeth on the 17th of December, 
at the head of 800 troops. On that day Colonel Ford's 
brigade was somewhat scattered. The Sussex battalion, 
under Colonel Symmes, lay at Chatham; Colonel Spencer's 
Essex battalion was posted at Springfield; and the Morris 
County regiment was stationed about midway between them, 
among the defiles of the Short Hills. The enemy's approach 
was detected and reported by videts whom Spencer had 
stationed on the main road about two miles east of Spring- 
field, and a light horseman' was dispatched at full speed to 
Chatham to warn the colonel commandant that the British 
were in sight. The brigade was already under arms, and it 
immediately marched to Spencer's support. The latter felt 
that he was not strong enough to cope with so formidable a 
body of the enemy, and he fell back from Springfield in the 
direction of Chatham, meeting the brigade at Briant's tavern. 
A spirited fight with the British then ensued, which, com- 
mencing late in the afternoon, continued about an hour, and 
was terminated by darkness." 

This, the first engagement at Springfield, may be re- 
garded as a drawn battle, neither party winning a decisive 
victory. In fact, each side seemed to feel that they had 
suffered a defeat. Although the strength of the combatants 
appears to have been nearly equal, the Americans believed 
themselves to be greatly outnumbered; and, despairing of 
checking the enemy's advance, they fell back under cover of 

' Nathaniel Crane, of Captain Marsh's Light Horse. — Drake's Historical 
Sketches of the Revolution and Civil It'ar, 20. 
■ Hatfield's Elizabeth, 452. 



The Militia Disheartened 171 

darkness to Chatham; while the British, amazed by the 
stubborn resistance of the raw and undisciplined militia, also 
withdrew during the night, abandoning all hope of pene- 
trating the country lying beyond the Short Hills. But this 
skirmish at Springfield, however insignificant in itself, was 
important in its results. It was the first instance in this 
State when British troops were forced to turn and retire; 
and when the outcome of the fight became generally known, 
and it was proven that the British soldiery was not in- 
vmcible, the effect was to greatly stimulate and encourage 
the waning spirits of the patriots. 

The disheartened militia, however, had little conception 
of the success of their effort and of its far reaching effect 
when they fell back to Chatham, smarting under what they 
believed to be a defeat. During the evening Ford wrote to 
Heath, who was still at Hackensack, urging the general to 
come to his support. 

Chatham, 17th. December, 1776, 

ten o'clock in the Evening, and 

twelve miles west of Elizabeth Town. 
Dear Sir: 

We have since sunset had a brush with the enemy, four miles 
below this, in which we have suffered, and our Militia much dis- 
heartened. They are all retreated to this place and will in all prob- 
ability be attacked by daybreak. The enemy, we have reason to be- 
lieve, are double our numbers. General McDougall is with the 
northern battalions that were coming on with Colonel Vose, and in- 
tends marching directly to General Washington. He is this night 
in Morris-Town, eight miles west of this, and ^ye have no expecta- 
tion of his assistance. If in your wisdom >ou can assist us, we may 
possibly beat them yet, but without your aid we can't stand. They 
are encamped (say one thousand British troops) at Springfield and 
will be joined by four hundred and fifty Waldeckers from Elizabeth- 
Town by the next mot.ung's light. I know, sir, it is not for me. nor 
would I presume, to direct you, but if you can consistentlv, I beg and 



172 History of Chatham 

pray you would come to our assistance. If \'ou think proper to come 
to our assistance, the bearer will give you our situation and that of 
the enemy, and be your guide; after which you will be a proper judge 
whether to beat up their rear or to march in their front and join us, 
or rather suffer us to join you, and march the whole down upon them. 
Am your most obed servant, 

J.^vcoB Ford, Jun., Colonel. 
To the Hon. General Heath, at Second River or Hackinsack.* 

This letter was quickly followed by a second: 

Chatham, 18th. December, 1776. 
5 o'clock. 
Sir: 

Since writing my last I have certain intelligence that the troops 
we engaged last night were General Leslie's brigade, who marched 
some days since from Elizabeth Town to the southard. They re- 
ceived an order to countermarch to the same place. That brigade is 
from twelve to thirteen hundred strong, and the Waldeckers upwards 
of fo>ir hundred. At Spank-Town, six miles to the southard of Eliza- 
beth Town, there is five hundred British troops. That is all the 
enemy you have to combat in this country at present. We are 
not certain whether the enemy who attacked us have or have not yet 
returned to Elizabeth Town. Lord Stirling is on this side the river 
Delaware, with a small detachment joined to General Sullivan, with 
ord?rs not to recross the river, if my intelligence be good, and I be- 
lieve it is. 

I am, your most obedient, 

Jacob Ford, Jun. 
To Major General Heath. - 

'American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1260. 

'American Archives, Ser. 5, HI, 1277. The engagement is thus re- 
ferred to in a certificate made by Colonel Symmes in support of an appli- 
cation of Captain Kirkendall for a pension. It is copied from the court 
records of Sussex County: 

Sussex Courts, February Term, 1782. 

Captain Samuel Kirkendall having presented to the Court a certificate 
in words and figures following, viz: 

These may certify that on the Seventeenth day of December, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, I, the subscriber, 



Retrkat of the Enemy 173 

Had the British general pushed forward on the fol- 
lowing morning, he would undoubtedly have succeeded in 
reaching Chatham, or even Morristown, without encounter- 
ing a very determined resistance; but, fortunately for the 
Americans, he apparently overestimated their strength, and 
dared not venture among the Short Hills. During the night 
he quietly withdrew from Springfield, carrying his dead and 
wounded in wagons; and retreated with such expedition that, 
although he was pursued by the militia as far as Westfield, 
he was not overtaken. 

The 17th of December witnessed the arrival at Mor- 
ristown of the Ticonderoga detachment, which, it will be 
recalled, had been ordered by Washington to join his army. 
General Heath had written to the commander-in-chief from 
Hackensack as early as the 15th that this brigade had 
marched to the neighborhood of Chatham, where it would 
arrive, he thought, that night or the next morning' — in- 
formation which was not strictly accurate, for the troops 
marched to Morristown in the first instance, and their subse- 
quent detention at Chatham was quite unexpected. This 
detachment formed a part of the Massachusetts Continental 
line, and consisted of Colonel Elisha Porter's regiment, 

then having the command of the Militia from the Count>- of Sussex in the 
State of New Jersey, lay at Chatham, in said State, with other battalions of 
Militia formiiig a brigade under the command of Colonel Jacob Ford, when 
Colonel Ford had advice that the British troops to the number of eight hun- 
dred men, under the command of C/eneral Leslie had advanced to Spring- 
field within four miles of Chatham. Colonel Ford thereupon ordered me 
to proceed to Springfield and check the approach of the enemy if possible. 
According to orders I marched to Springfield with a detachment of the 
Brigade and attacked the enemy in Springfield that evening. In the skirmish 
Capt. Kirkendall of the Sussex Militia was wounded in the hand, his 
harid was split by a musket shot from his middle finger to his wrist, by 
which wound he has lost the use of his right hand. 

Given under my hand at Newton, in the State of New Jersey, this 6th 
day of May, 1780. 

To whom it may concern. John Cleve Symmes, Colonel. 

— Ne^v Jersey llislorical Society Proceedings, Ser. 2, V, 42. 

' American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1234. 



174 History of Chatham 

numbering approximately 170 men; the Twenty-fifth Con- 
tinental infantry of about 100 men, known as Bond's regi- 
ment in honor of its colonel, William Bond, who had died a 
few weeks before; and the Twenty-fourth Continental in- 
fantry, numbering about 250, still called Greaton's regiment, 
although its former colonel, John Greaton, had recently 
been transferred to the Third Massachusetts, and had been 
succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Vose, who was in 
command of the brigade.' As these troops had been re- 
cruited in Massachusetts, they were sometimes referred to 
in military correspondence and orders as the "Eastern" or 
"New England" detachment. 

On the following morning, when this brigade was pre- 
paring to leave Morristown, news was received of Ford's 
engagement at Springfield; and as a renewal of the conflict 
was anticipated, General McDougall, who had arrived at 
Morristown a few days before," and whose rank entitled him 
to assume command of all the troops in this region, immedi- 
ately ordered the Ticonderoga regiments to Chatham to sup- 
port the militia; believing that the exigencies of the case ne- 
cessitated this departure from the commands of Washington. 
The brigade remained at Chatham until the next day; and 
then, finding that the enemy had retired, and thinking that 
there was no immediate prospect of a further engagement, 
Colonel Vose prepared to continue his march across the 
State; but the inhabitants protested so strongly against being 
left without any means of defence save that of the militia, 
whose condition was somewhat demoralized, that General 
McDougall decided to assume the responsibility of de- 

' American Archives, Ser. 5, HI, 1296; Heitman's Register of Continental 
Officers, 110, 259, 561. 

' McDougall, who had been prevented by sickness from marching with 
his brigade, which formed part of Lee's division, followed the troops when 
sufficiently recovered, with the intention of overtaking and rejoining them; 
but upon reaching Morristown he learned of Lee's capture, and feared to 
proceed further without a bodyguard. 



\'0SK's Dl-.lACHMKXr AT ClTATHAM 1 75 

taining him in this place. These facts are more particularly 
stated in the following interesting letter from McDougall 
to Washington : 

Chatham, in East Jersey, 1'^ December, 177(). 
Sir: 

The rheumatism and other disorders detained me at Haver- 
straw, and separated me from m\ brigade. Eight days since I found 
myself much better, and followed General Lee's division to Morris 
Town, where I arrived the day after he was unfortunately taken. 
This catastrophe determined me, by the advice of friends, not to 
proceed unless I had a guard. The three regiments from the north- 
ward, imder Colonel Vose, were hourly expected in Morris I own. 
They did not arrive until the day before \esterday, late in the evening. 
Provisions and other necessaries were prepared for their march next 
morning to join you ; but an express arrived at niglit. with informa- 
tion that Cohniel Ford's iVIilitia had an engagement with the enemy 
at Springfield, and that he expected it would be renewed the next 
morning, to gain the pass of the mountains. The country in general 
being greatly discouraged, and on the eve of making a surrender of 
this State, I judged it my duty to order those regiments to march at 
four a.m. to support Colonel Ford. The enemy early next morning re- 
tired towards Spank Town. 

When Colonel Vose this morning was preparing to march to 
Morris Town, the Mih'tia and principal gentlemen were much de- 
jected, and assured me if those troops \vere not left here to coun- 
tenance them, the Militia could not be collected to make an\' opposi- 
tion to the enemy, and those who were imbodied would disband, 
which would eventuall\' end in a submis,sion of this State. Indeed, 
some of the most important, sensible and zealous of the people de- 
clared they would provide for their own safety, as they had no hopes 
of being able to assemble the Militia if those continental troops were 
removed. They asserted that General Lee gave them assurance that 
those troops should be left here for their protection, which was coun- 
tenanced in some measure in a letter of General Heath's to Colonel 
Ford ; and to remove them after so many of the troops passed through 



176 History of Chatham 

the State, would be to abandon them to the enemy, which is the idea 
generally held by too many of the friends of the country' ; but if any 
troops stay, they were in no doubt of collecting a respectable number 
of the Militia. In this state of things, I feared if I advised Colonel 
Vose to proceed to the Delaware, I should be chargeable with all the 
bad consequences. These facts will be authenticated to you by the 
Committee of Morris Town. 

The submission of this State would draw after it consequences 
easier to conceive than to express, and are too obvious to render an 
enumeration necessarj'. To prevent an event so fatal to our common 
cause, I have ventured to advise Colonel Vose to remain in this State, 
and shall post his troops, with the Militia, in the best manner to cover 
the country not in the hands of the enemy. It is the only chance we 
have for retaining it. Orders for him will readily find him by apply- 
ing to Colonel Remsen, at Morris Town, or Colonel Ford. I find 
by Colonel Vose that those troops are determined to go home at the 
expiration of their time, which would nearly be accomplished before 
they could reach you,^ which was a consideration which induced me 
to advise his stay, and as their assistance to you would not bear any 
proportion to the prospect of their service here. I hope these con- 
siderations will justify me to jour Excellency, as the service and the 
safety of our common cause were the only motives which determined 
my advice. 

I am greatly mortified that I have no reason to expect I shall be 
able to do duty in the course of the winter in the manner I could 
wish, from the complication of disorders that afflict me. If the time 
was not so critical to the country I would resign, as I do not wish 
to be a burthen to it. But as this might at this crisis be a prejudice 
to the cause, subject to the abuse of our enemies, I decline it; but 
wish to be favoured with the General's advice for my future con- 
duct. If I stay here, unless I am with a detachment of the Army, 
I shall be exposed to the like misfortune that befell General Lee. If 
I am with the Army, the houses are so necessary to them that I can- 
not be accommodated; I shall, however, endeavor to remain in this 

'The Ticonderoga troops afterwards consented to extend their term of 
service, upon receipt of a liberal bountj' with full pay. — Carrington's ffash- 
ington the Soldier, 147. 



Malcolm's Activities 177 

neighbourhood till General Heath arrives at Morris Town, which I 
have reason to expect will be in a iew days. 

I am, with earnest wishes for your success and happiness, 
your Excellency's very humble servant, 

Alex. McDoug.all. 
His Excellency General Washington 
P. S. 

The enemy are changing their troops so often from Haninsak 
to Elizabeth Town, that it is impossible to give a true state of their 
numbers in frontier towns of this State. Colonel Ford has had from 
eight hundred to one thousand of the Militia collected, now about 
seven hundred. Greaton's regiment, about 250; Bond's do 100- 
Porter's do. 1 70—520. 

I have taken the liberty to transmit to you a letter of General 
Heath's approving of my advice in detaining that corps.' 

The letter given below was dispatched to General 
Heath by William Malcolm (Malcom), colonel of a New 
lork Continental regiment attached to General Scott's 
brigade which formed part of Heath's division. From 
the military correspondence of that period it appears that 
Malcolm was then engaged in waging a sort of guerilla 
warfare against the British and tories, with whom he had 
had several sharp skirmishes on the west side of the Hud- 
son, notably in the vicinity of Tappan, Nyack, Hackensack 
and English Neighborhood. 

Chatham, December 19, 1776. 
Dear General: 

I got to this place this moment. General McDougall most 
providentially was before me. An order from Head Quarters for 
the Ticonderoga detachment to join the grand Army, had almost 
lost this State. The Militia, who are numerous and brave in this 
quarter, finding themselves abandoned, came to a resolution to save 
themselves and families by dispersing. The principal people sup- 
posing themselves forsaken by the Army, were also dejected, and 
' American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1396. 



178 History of Chatham 

would have retired. To avert so capital a blow, General McDougall 

hath detained Colonel Vose until further orders; but this leaves the 

issue doubtful. A repeated order may arrive next moment, and the 

State lost. For this weight}- consideration, surely it will be advisable 

that you move this way. Suppose Tappan and the vicinity is exposed, 

the enemy cannot approach the forts by land (with artillery) but 

through the pass of the Clove; and surely General Clinton's arm is 

competent to defend that ground, perhaps to do more. 

I am informed you can expect to be joined here by about one 

thousand good Militia. This will enable you to cover this valuable 

country which abounds with forage, and which must expect the 

vengeance of the enemy. From their attachment to their country and 

their zeal, they are remarkably obnoxious in proportion to their fears; 

and therefore they ought to be supported. This quarter is capable of 

being easily defended, and much benefit arise thereby. I hope to 

meet you on Saturday at Morris Town, or a shorter road which Mr. 

Sanford will show you. Time is precious, I can only offer my respect 

to General Parsons, General Clinton if with you, and your suite; 

and that with much respect and esteem I am, dear General, 

your most obliged and very humble servant, 

W. Malcolm. 
To Major General Heath, P\ ramus. 

The facts contained in this are true. 

Ale.x McDoug.all.^ 

To the great relief of the officers in this quarter, an 
order soon arrived from General Washington directing the 
Ticonderoga troops to remain in the neighborhood of Mor- 
ristown, "in order to inspirit the inhabitants and as far as 
possible to cover that part of the country."- The com- 
mander-in-chief wrote to General McDougall: 

Head Quarters Bucks County 21st. Deer. 1776. 
Dear Sir 

I am this Evening favored with yours of the 19th. from Chatham. 
I not only approve of the Disposition you made of the three Regiments 

' American Archives, Scr. 5, HI, 1297. 
'Sherman's Historic Morristown, 202. 



War-Time Letters 179 

under Colo. V^ose, because I think it was a very judicious one, but 1 
had previous to the Receit of your Letter determined upon exactly 
the same plan and had sent Orders to Colo. Vose to halt at Morris 
Town, that he might afford protection to the well affected in the 
Neighbourhood and give Spirits to the Militia. 

If you find your Health such that you cannot take an acti\e 
part where you are, or stay there without further prejudice to it, 1 
would have you return to peekskill and there, in conjunction with 
Genl. Geo: Clinton take charge of that department, as I have ordered 
Genl. Heath to join me with as many of the Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts Militia as can be spared. 

I think with you, that tho' your State of Health may require a 
Resignation, that this is not a proper time to make it, our Enemies 
would probably attribute it to the late unfavorable Aspect of our 
Affairs, and therefore I would advise you to try, whether a little 
Rest might not contribute to the Cure of a disorder, which is gener- 
ally brought on by Colds and Fatigue.^ 



GENERAL McDOUGALL TO GENERAL HEATH. 

Chatham, 20 December, 1776. 
My dear General : 

I was honoured by your favour of the 18th. It came very seas- 
onable. I was happy to find you and the other General Officers 
considered it advisable to detain Colonel Vose's corps. It was a 
measure absolutely necessan,- to prop the drooping spirits of the Mi- 
litia. This moment Colonel Vose received General Washington's 
orders of the 18th., to tarry in this State, which has relieved me from 
many embarrassments. 

The enclosed is the last intelligence we have of the state of the 
enemy. "Whenexer the service will permit your advancing to Morris- 
Town, it will be of great importance in protecting this distressed 
State. As this is to accompany a letter to you, which we suppose to 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B II, pt. 1, 147. 



i8o History of Chatham 

be from General Washington, and forwarded by express, time will 
only permit me to add, that I am, 

with great respect, 

your very humble servant, 

Alex McDougall. 
To Major-General Heath, Pyramus. 

Intelligence by John Halstead, from Elizabeth-Town. 

John Halstead left Elizabeth-Town this morning about eight 
o'clock. Says there is no troops in Elizabeth-Town but Waldcckers, 
the same that has been there for two weeks past. Says the drums 
beat this morning, about daybreak, and he understood they were 
to have marched ; but that they did not, and the reason why, as he 
understood, was the badness of the weather. Knows not which way 
they were to march, but it was said they were to have a little march 
out o' town; that he thinks six or seven hundred British troops went 
through town the day before yesterday, near twelve o'clock, towards 
New-Ark, and that they have not as yet returned. 

Chatham, 20th. December, 1776.^ 

McDougall now received intelligence that the enemy, 
with upwards of thirty-nine hundred men, was preparing to 
march upon Morristown by three different routes: one from 
New Brunswick via Basking Ricige; another from Elizabeth 
by way of Chatham; and a third from Newark, doubtless by 
way of Hanover and Whippany ; and, fearing lest his retreat 
might be cut off, he decided to retire to Morristown in order 
to keep open his communication with the country to the west- 
ward. Accordingly, on the 22nd of December, he withdrew 
from Chatham, taking with him Ford's militia and presum- 
ably the Ticonderoga brigade as well; for the latter seems 
to have been stationed in Chatham up to this time. Ford's 
troops had become so scattered since the skirmish at Spring- 
field during the preceding week that his command was 
reduced to about tvvo hundred; but even this depleted force 

'American .Archives, Ser. 5, HI, 1315. 



Maxwell Commands the Militia i8i 

was now withdrawn from Chatham, and the village left 
without protection except that of a few soldiers who re- 
mained to keep watch. The Essex militia, however, was 
directed to guard the passes of the Short Hills between 
Chatham and Springfield.^ 

McDougall's information proved to be erroneous, the 
enemy hesitating to leave the shelter of the towns to the 
eastward. A number of stragglers ventured out from time 
to time, some of whom were captured almost every day by 
the Americans, and escorted through Chatham to Morris- 
town, where they were closely confined. 

About this time General Washington directed General 
William Maxwell to go to Morristown and take command 
of the Ticonderoga detachment and the local militia; having 
been informed that eight hundred of the latter troops were 
under arms at that place. Maxwell's instructions were to 
collect as large a number of the militia as possible, and to 
harass the enemy on their front and rear, cutting off their 
convoys at every opportunity. He arrived at Morristown 
on the 24th of December, and on the 30th McDougall 
turned over the command to him. He found scarcely any 
of the militia under arms, except those who were guarding 
the different passes, the captains having allowed most of 
their men leave of absence for the ostensible purpose of 
recruiting; but he was assured by Colonel Ford that a full 
regiment could be soon made up.-' 

The gallant Colonel Ford, however, was not destined 
to perform further services in the line of his duty. In carry- 
ing on this skirmish warfare during the fall and winter he 
had been in constant service on the lines, marching and 
countermarching with his troops about Elizabeth, Spring- 
field, Westfield and Chatham, in making what was called by 

' American Archives, Ser. 5, III, 1364, 1489. 
'■Ibid., 1474; Upham's Washington, 1, 205. 



l82 



History of Chatham 



the soldiers the "mud rounds,'" and had been subjected to 
greater hardship and exposure than his constitution could 
bear. Within a few days after his return to Morristown 
he was stricken with an acute attack of pneumonia while still 
in active service, and died on the loth of January, 1777, In 
the 39th year of his age." 

'The marches and countermarches of this campaign were called the 
"mud rounds" in reference to the condition of the roads, which were alter- 
nately frozen into ruts so deep as to render them almost impassable, and 
thawed into veritable quagmires. The veterans of the Revolution long 
recalled the "mud rounds" as a campaign of exceptional hardship and suf- 
fering. 

'Sherman's Historic Morristown, 203; Historical Magazine, X, 92. 




CHAPTER VIII 

Opening of the Campaign of 1777— Maxwell's Activities— Wash- 
ington at Morristown— Many of the Soldiers billeted in private 
Houses— Their Sufferings from Disease and Famine— Pennsyl- 
vania and Rhode Island Troops at Chatham— General Sullivan 
stationed here— His Discontent— His Correspondence— Cap- 
tain Bauman commands the Artillery at Chatham— His 
Perplexity caused by conflicting Orders. 

««T BEG you will collect all the men you possibly can about 
1 Chatham, and, after gaining the proper intel- 
hgence, endeavor to strike a stroke upon Elizabeth-Town 
or that neighborhood; at any rate be ready to co-operate 
with me." 

Thus wrote General Washington from Trenton on 
December 30, 1776, to "the commanding officer at Morris- 
town":' and General Maxwell lost no time in carrying his 
instructions into effect. At the head of Vose's Continentals, 
and with as large a body of militia as could be gathered, he 
attacked the enemy with so much spirit that he compelled 
them to evacuate both Elizabeth and Newark. Then fol- 
lowed a series of engagements of greater or less importance 
lasting for six months, the object of the campaign being to 
drive the British out of New Jersey; and in this the Amer- 
icans were ultimately successful. A noteworthy skirmish 
occurred at Springfield on January ^th, in which the Amer- 
icans, without the loss of a single man, overcame an equal 
force of Waldeckers, killing eight or ten, and capturing the 
remainder of the party, which numbered thirty-nine or forty. 
The militia was led on this occasion by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Oliver Spencer, whose bravery was soon rewarded by pro- 

' American Archives, 5th. Ser., Ill, 1488. 



1 84 History of Chatham 

motion to the rank of colonel/ Another encounter took 
place on February ist, which was less satisfactory in its 
results. It was thus reported in the New York Gazette 
and Weekly Mercury of February loth. The paper, being 
published in a city which was occupied by the British, was 
necessarily in sympathy with the crown, and due allowance 
must be made for bias and exaggeration. For example, the 
number of Americans participating in this Insignificant skir- 
mish is alleged to have been greater than that of Washing- 
ton's entire force at the time. 

On Saturday the 1st. Instant, a smart Skirmish happened at 
Springfield in New-Jersey, between a Party of near 4000 Rebels, 
under the Command of Sullivan, and the 42d. Regiment (the famous 
and gallant Highlanders) under Sir William Erskine. The Rebels 
were attempting to possess a Hill, which would have given them a 
considerable Advantage. Sir William, perceiving their Design, 
directed his Highlanders to dispute the Ground. They advanced 
with their usual Ardor and Intrepidity' upon the Enemy, notwith- 
standing the great Disparity of their Numbers, and came instantly 
to close Quarters with them. The Spirit of these Heroes was not to 
be matched by Rebels ; and, accordingly, they soon gave up the Point, 
and retired with the utmost Precipitation, leaving behind them above 
Two hundred and Fifty Men killed upon the Spot. The Bravery 
and Conduct of Sir William Erskine and this Regiment have only 
been equalled by Col. Mawhood and the gallant 17th. The Loss on 
the part of the Troops, amounted only to 18 in killed and wounded. 

An American report of the affair is also given. It 
differs so widely from the tory version that, were it not for 
the date, the mention of Sir William Erskine, and the con- 
ceded British victory, the engagement could hardly be iden- 
tified as the one just described. 

E.\tract of a letter from an officer of dictinction, dated at 
' Hatfield's Elizabeth. 455. 



Encounter near New Brunswick 185 

Chatham (between Morristowii and Elizabeth-town, New Jersey) 
February 3, 1777. 

"We have hemmed the enemy in, and begin to pinch them. On 
the 23d. ult. we trimmed two regiments near to Woodbridge, killed 
thirty privates, and several officers. Had Col. , who com- 
manded, behaved well, we should have destroyed one regiment. He 
is now under an arrest. We lost no men that day. 

"On the first instant, three thousand of the enemy, under com- 
mand of Sir William Erskine, came out of Brunswick to forage — 
They had eight pieces of cannon — Several of our scouting parties 
joined, to the amount of six hundred men, under command of Col. 
Scott, of the Fifth Virginia regiment. A disposition was made to 
attack the enemy. Col. Scott with ninety Virginians on the right, 
attacked two hundred British grenadiers, and drove them to their 
cannon. The other parties not marching so briskly up to the attack, 
the Colonel was engaged ten minutes by himself; and, three hundred 
fresh men being sent against him, he was obliged to give way, and 
formed again within three hundred yards of the enemy. By this time 
two other divisions had got up with the enemy ; but superior numbers 
at last prevailed. Our troops retreated about a quarter of a mile, 
formed again, and looked the enemy in the face until they retreated. 
The enemy had thirty-six killed, that the countrj- people saw, and 
upwards of one hundred wounded. We have lost three officers and 
twelve privates killed, and have about as many wounded. Lieut. 
Gregor)', from Elizabeth City County, Virginia, a brave officer, and 
Adjutant Kelly, of the 5th. Virginia regiment, one of the bravest men 
in the army; he was carried off the field with a flesh wound only, 
and five more Virginians; but the enemy coming on that ground, 
murdered them, by beating out their brains, with a barbarity exceed- 
ing that of the savages."' 

With the opening of the year 1777 the tide turned in 
favor of the Americans; and the cause of independence, 
which had seemed almost lost in New Jersey during the pre- 
ceding months, now appeared much more hopeful. Wash- 
ington's brilliant victory at Trenton was quickly followed by 

' Almon's Remembrancer, IV, 98. 



1 86 History of Chatham 

his success at Princeton; and he soon compelled the British 
to abandon all their outposts beyond New Brunswick, their 
full strength being required at that place for the protection 
of their stores. As a result of his operations, and of Max- 
well's activities, the enemy, who were practically in posses- 
sion of the State only a few weeks before, now retained only 
their posts at New Brunswick and Perth Amboy.' But the 
country lying between those towns and Elizabeth was still 
ravaged by their marauding parties, and encounters between 
them and the Americans were of almost daily occurrence; 
our troops constantly moving from Chatham and Springfield, 
or from Westfield and Scotch Plains, to cut off the British 
foraging parties, and to capture their spies." These disturb- 
ances kept the inhabitants of the border in constant anxiety, 
and it is probable that for them the winter of 1776-7 was as 
exciting as any period of the war. 

Shortly after the battle of Princeton (on the 6th of 
January to be exact), Washington led his army to Morris- 
town, and went into winter quarters. His force at that time 
numbered about 3,000 men;'' there being 43 regiments, 
divided into 10 brigades under Brigadier-Generals Muhlen- 
burg, Weedon, Woodford, Scott, Smallwood, Deborre, 
Wayne, Dehass, Conway and Maxwell, and five divisions of 
two brigades each under Major-Generals Greene, Stephen 
Sullivan, Lincoln and Stirling. The artillery was commanded 
by Brigadier-General Knox.* Many of the soldiers en- 

' Sherman's Historic Morristown, 213. 

"Hatfield's Elizabeth, 459. 

"Sherman's Historic Morristown, 214. 

* Sparks' Writings of Washington, IV, 423 n. Morristown was 
selected for winter quarters by the advice of General Knox. — Schroeder's 
Life and Times of IVashington, I, 536. Lossing, in his Washington 
Biography, II, 398, says: "Washington chose Morristown in 1777 only 
as a temporary halting place for repose, but soon perceived it most secure 
and eligible for the winter encampment. A chain of hills running from 
Pluckemin by way of Chatham and Springfield to the great falls of the 
Passaic at Paterson made approach difficult for a hostile army, and at his 
rear was a populous and fertile country full of provisions and forage." 



The Army in Winter Quarters 187 

camped in the Loantaka valley, about three miles southeast 
of Morristown, where a number of rude huts was erected 
for their shelter; while others were billeted in private houses, 
not only in Morristown, but throughout the neighboring 
villages; among the latter being the three regiments of 
Colonel Vose, who, for the most part, were quartered in 
private dwellings in the district afterwards known as Chat- 
ham Township.' 

We are indebted to the Brothers Tuttle for a valuable 
description of the encampment, and an interesting record of 
events occurring at that time. They thus describe the man- 
ner in which those troops who were not stationed in camp 
were billeted: 

A large part of the soldiers were quartered upon the inhabitants 
in Hanover, Whippany, Chatham, Madison, and Morristown. This 
was done by commissioners, of whom Aaron Kitchel, of Hanover, was 
one.- Twelve men were quartered on Parson Green, sixteen on 
Anna Kitchel's husband Uzal, a score on Aaron Kitchel, and so 
throughout the farming district. To these families it was almost 
ruinous, since all they had was eaten up in the service, so that when 
the army marched oE it left the region as bare as if it had been swept 
by a plague of locusts.^ 

Every house throughout this entire region was filled to its utmost 
capacity with either officers or soldiers. Persons appointed by the 
Commander-in-chief passed through the towns and examined the 
houses; and, without much consultation with the owners, decided 
how many, and who, should be quartered in each. Often, without 
even going into the houses, these persons would ride up to the door 
and write "Colonel Ogden's Head-quarters;" "Major Eaton's Head- 
quarters;" "Twelve privates to be billeted here;" "Six officers to be 
quartered here;" &c., and, generally without much regard to the con- 
venience or wishes of the occupants, the arrangements of these Com- 
missioners were carried out. In many cases the best rooms were 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 208. 
' Harper's Magazine, XVIII, 293. 
^Annals of Morris Countj-, 38. 



1 88 History of Chatham 

placed at the disposal of the troops, while the families owning them 
retired to their kitchens and garrets. Boards were set up on the 
floor, across the end of the room opposite to the hearth, just far 
enough from the wall to permit of a person lying down at full length. 
This space was then filled with good wholesome straw ; and there, all 
the soldiers billeted in a house, numbering sometimes six, sometimes 
twelve, and sometimes even twenty, crowded in together, and, cover- 
ing themselves each with a single blanket, while the fires were kept 
burning, defended themselves as best they could from the severities 
of those stern winter nights. In some cases the soldiers had their 
meals provided by the families with which they were quartered ; while 
in others they drew their rations and prepared them for themselves, 
as is generally done in camp. In the case of the officers, except when 
their families were with them, the former course was generally 
adopted. 

This method, though necessarily arbitrary, was met by a people 
of "willing mind." Aaron Kitchel and his father, Joseph, of Han- 
over, had two houses, and gave up the larger one, on condition that 
the old people might have the other, required only to take care of 
three sick English prisoners, of whom there was no danger of their 

catching the small pox The Say res, Richards, Ely, Beach, 

Kitchel, Smith, Tuttle, and other families were served in the same 
way, making no complaints.' 

The winter of 1777 was an exceptionally cold one, but 
the severity of the weather was by no means the least of 
the hardships to which the soldiers were exposed: they also 
suffered from the lack of food and clothing, and from 
various diseases caused by their enfeebled vitality and un- 
sanitary surroundings. Early in January an epidemic of 
smallpox broke out in Morristown, and spread with alarm- 
ing rapidity throughout this entire region; carrying off 
many of the soldiers, and great numbers of the civil popu- 
lation as well. The patriotic inhabitants of the entire 
countryside sought by every means in their power to alleviate 
the sufferings of the troops, and supplied the army with 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 208, 358. 



Sufferings of the Troops 189 

necessaries as far as their slender means would allow. 
"Provisions," says Dr. Tuttle, "came in with hearty good 
will from the farmers of Mendham, Chatham, Hanover, 
and other rural places, together with stockings, shoes, coats, 
and blankets; while the women met together to sew for the 
soldiery."' The shortcomings of the commissary depart- 
ment aroused the ire of General Washington, who, on 
February 22nd, penned a sharp rebuke to General Irwin, in 
charge of that branch of the service: 

The Cn- of want of Provisions comes to me from every Quar- 
ter — Genl. Maxwell writes word that his People are Starring — Genl. 
Johnson of Mar>Iand yesterday inform'd me, that his People could 
draw none — this difficulty I understand prevails also at Chatham!— 
What Sir is the meaning of this? — and why were you so desirous 
of excluding others from this business when you are unable to accom- 
plish it yourself? — Consider, I beseech you, the consequence of this 
neglect, and exert yourself to remove the Evil and Complaints which 
cannot be less fatal to the Army than 
disagreeable to, 
Sir, 
Your most obedt. humble Servant. 

Go. Washington." 

I "StockinKs, mittens, leggings, blankets and all kinds of domestic fabric 
employed those earnest women. The Kitchells, Smiths and Greens of Han- 
over; the Jacksons, Beaches and Winds, of Rockavvav and Pequan'nock- the 
Condits. Fords, Johns and Hathawavs, of .Morristovvn ; the Carters Pier'sons 
Sayres, Millers, Thompsons and Browns, of Chatham; the Thompsons' 
Drakes and Careys, of Mendham, were only a few, who, from the begin- 
nmg of the war, counted all things as loss unless independence was won 
and the army was made the recipients of their houmy."—Carrinfflon's The 
Strategic Relations of Neiv Jersey to the Revolution. 25. 

This was not the only occasion when the women of northern New 
Jersey interested themselves in the welfare of the soldierv: after the mili- 
tary hospital at Princeton was established, their benevolence was manifested 
in gifts to Its sick and wounded inmates. We read in the AVw Jersey 
Gazette of February 25, 1/78, thaj the church at Hanover had sent a dona- 
tion of clothing and linen to the hospital; and in the issue of .•\pril 8 1778 
that similar gifts had been received from the churches of Newark Eliza- 
beth Town, Connecticut Farms, Turky and South Hanover (now New Provi- 
dence and Madison), Springfield, Morristown, Scotch Plains and Bound 
Brook. Chatham was included in the parishes of South Hanover and 
bpringheld. 

' Ford's Writings of Washington, V, 251 n. 



190 History of Chatham 

One of the soldiers of Washington's army participating 
in the campaign of 1777 in northern New Jersey was James 
McMichael of Pennsylvania, who recorded his adventures 
in a diary which has been preserved, and in which a few 
references to Chatham are found. McMichael was at that 
time a sergeant in Captain John Marshall's company of the 
Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment, commanded by Colonel 
Samuel Miles. We quote as follows from his journal : 

Januar>' 12. — We marched from Morristovvn at 3. P. M., and 
arrived at Chatham at dark, in the suburbs of which we got very 
agreeable quarters. The young ladies here are very fond of the 
soldiers, but much more so of officers. 

Apparently nothing occurred during McMichael's stay 
at Chatham which he considered worthy of note in his 
journal. The next entry reads : 

January 23. — At 4 P. M. marched from Chatham for Spring- 
field, where at P. M. we got quarters. 

On the 24th he mentions a brush with the enemy at 
Quibble Town, and, after an interval, the narrative con- 
tinues: 

January 31. — Yesterday we marched to Elizabethtown, and 
to-day, after passing through Connecticut Farms and Springfield, 
reached Chatham, where I secured my former lodgings. 

Here another gap occurs which is terminated on Feb- 
ruary loth by the brief statement that, having obtained a 
furlough, the sergeant left Chatham at 7 A. M.' 

A letter from John Marshall, the captain of Sergeant 
McMichael's company, is reprinted from the Pennsylvania 

' Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XVI, HI. 



Captain Marshall's Letter 191 

Archives. Its signature as there given — J. Marshall — is un- 
questionably a misprint. 

Chatham, Feby 1st. 1777. 

Sir, 

My so long defering writing to you was sometimes for want of 
an opportunity, and when that offcr'd had not any paper. I shall Just 
give you a brief acct. of our proceedings since you left us. A few 
days after we arriv'd at this place, a party of our Regt. was ordered 
out on a scout with Col. Weine, who met with a party of the 
plunderers, had a small skirmish with them, in which we lost Sergt. 
Weaver. Soon after a large party was ordered out; Messrs. Robb, 
Sneider, & myself was in the number, the whole was commanded hy 

Col. B r, from Virginia,' a man who has distinguish'd himself 

for, I was going to say cowardice, but shall only impute it to his 
weakly constitution not agreeing with the smell of sulphur ; but to 
give you a more particular acct. of the matter, our body consisted of 
about 300 men, (officers included,) who met with upwards of Double 
the number, near Bonum Town, we were posted in a very advan- 
tageous piece of ground, with a great plenty of Timber, the Enemy 
were in the open field with two field pieces, but were twice repuls'd 
as they attempted to gain the woods, after fighting near half an hour 
we were obliged to retreat, and to the great surprise of everyone, 
without the loss of either one man or blood, except one cowardly 
fellow who was much confus'd, in running off, ran into a briar bush 
which scratcli'd his hand that the blood appear'd. Our Col. how- 
ever took care to make a safe retreat. 

It is said the Enemy had that day kill'd (S; wounded upwards 
of seventy, many of which were officers of distinction. 

Mr. Hufner is just arrived with seventeen men, which If like 

' Col. Mordecai Biickner, of the 6th. Virginia. Col. Parker, writing to 
Gen. Washington from Springfield on Jan. 24, gave a detailed account of 
the fight on the road from Brunswick Landing to Woodbridge ; and stated 
that his superior, Col. Buckner, left on horseback as soon as the firing began, 
rode four miles to his quarters and announced that all was lost. Conse- 
quently Parker was obliged to draw off his troops, two of whom were cap- 
tured, though none was killed or wounded. — Calendar of It'erdon Corre- 
spondence, American Philnsophical Society Proceedings, XX.XTIII. 

Buckner was afterwards cashiered. — Maryland Historical Magazine, V, 
132; Hcitman's Register of Continental Officers, ISO. 



1^2 History of Chatham 

those heretofore, will be only an additional trouble to us, as they are 
much dissatisfied, some wanting money, &c. 

I shou'd be glad how soon some more of the officers, or the whole 
Regt. was ordered here, or even called to Philada, many indeed has 
gone without my leave. 

You'l Please Sr. give my compliments to Gentlemen, the officers 
of our Corps, except Mr. Robb's 5c Soiergens Complimts. 

believe me to be Dear Sr, your most Obed't H'ble serv't 

J. Harshall. 
[Directed:] 
To Major Enion Williams, 

in the Penna Rifle Reg't, Philadelphia.^ 

A detachment of Rhode Island troops, which had 
formed part of General Lee's command during the pre- 
ceding autumn, was stationed in Chatham about this time, 
as appears from the diary of Private John Howland of 
Captain Dexter's company in Colonel Lippett's regiment. 
Describing his experiences subsequent to the battle of Prince- 
ton, Howland writes: 

Our brigade, after our arrival at Morristown, was divided, and 
marched in different detachments towards the enemy's lines. Part 
of our regiment was quartered for a short time at Chatham, and the 
foraging parties of the enemy were kept in check by our patrols and 
piquets In February, captain Dexter's company were dis- 
charged at Chatham. I shouldered my pack, and in company with 
others travelled to Peekskill, where we crossed the Hudson by the 
same ferry we had crossed on our march westAvard under general 
Lee. Our paper money wages, forty shillings per month, was never 
paid fully, and we received nothing to bear our expenses home.= 

W. J. Mills, in his Historic Houses of New Jersey, 
mentions a letter written at Chatham by Private Caleb Mil- 
ler of the Revolutionary army to his mother, telling of a 

' Pennsylvania Archives, Ser. 1, V, 211. 
= Stone's Howland, 65, 70, 78. 



Sullivan at Chaiuam 193 

longing to hear the Newark church-bells, which he says 
"have a sweeter tone than any he has heard hereabouts," 
and expressing the hope that the day will soon come when he 
"can feel the green covering of his native village." The 
writer of the present volume has been unable to locate this 
letter, which is probably in some private collection. 

While Washington's army was in winter quarters in 
the early part of the year 1777, Major-General Sullivan, in 
military parlance, "lay in front of Morristown," to oppose 
any advance which might be attempted by the enemy, and 
to give timely warning to the commander-in-chief. For this 
duty he was stationed at Chatham, remaining here about 
four months.' His command at that time consisted of seven 
Maryland regiments (being the full quota of iMaryland), 
the single Delaware regiment, and Colonel Moses Hazen's 
regiment known as "the Congress Own."^ He also had a 
detachment of artillery under Captain Sabastian Bauman, 
of whom more will be said hereafter.^ 

.f .L^'^ai^^^f " "T^'f to have taken post at Chatham early in January, 
at the time of or shortly after, the arrival of the army at Morristown. I 
not proLiable that he remained here continuously during the winter for 
the occasional movements against the enemy would require his presence else- 
where; but he maintained his headquarters at Chatham until the 15th of 
May, when he vvas directed hy Washington to take command of the troops 
at Pnnceton.—K as/i,„ffton P„p,rs in the Library of Congress B III 157 

Wn'?'"°'-"' ^'^g=^^'"^. .Ser. 2, VII, 85. Col. Hazen commanded the 
Second regiment of Canadian volunteers, numbering at one time nearly 
500. After the withdrawal of the American troops from Canada the 
regiment gradually decreased to about lUO men, and in order to refill 
lis depleted ranks it was agreed to enlist Americans from any of the 
States Recruiting was accordingly carried on by Col. Hazen through- 
out New \ork, aud by L.eut..Col. Anthill in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Mar> and and Virginia. 1 heir success was indifferent, fo'r the New Ene- 
and States were paying a higher bounty to recruits than they were author- 
ized to offer. Thereafter the regiment was called "the Congress Own" 
because it was not attached to the quota of any State.-C,w#«V Cafholus in 

t Ir",'""""- '' !'?.:■ p'"-^™''''^ Generals of the Revolutwn, 11, 201; 
Spark s II ntmgs of II ashington, IV, 267 n. ■ v , 

= 0n January I4th, Col. George Johnston, Jr., secretary and aide de 
camp of Washington, wrote to his friend Leyan Powell: "the main body 
of the Enemy (8,000) are at Brunswick, 10 miles from their Fleet entrench- 
ing. Gen 1 Sullivan with about 2,000 at Chatham, about 6 miles from 
them Gen 1 Maxwell vyith better than 2,000 (which number is increasing 
hourly) lies at Elizabeth Town, which is 20 miles from Brunswick S E't 



194 History of Chatham 

General John Sullivan at this time was thirty-seven 
years of age. He was born in Berwick, Maine, of Irish 
parentage, his ancestors having been members of the historic 
Clan O'Sullivan of the ancient kingdom of Munster. He 
was a lawyer by profession, practising at Durham, New 
Hampshire; and besides his military career, he served the 
public at various times as delegate to the first Continental 
Congress, member of Congress under the Constitution, 
governor of New Hampshire, and judge of the Federal 
district court in that State. He is described as dignified, 
genial and amiable, possessing an erect and well-propor- 
tioned (though somewhat corpulent) figure, five feet nine 
inches in height. His features were animated and hand- 
some, his eyes dark, and his hair black and curly; and he 
possessed a powerful voice, which was deep but melodious.' 
Sullivan was a man of undoubted courage and patriotism, 
the value of whose military services cannot be overestimated; 
and it is said that, with the exception of Greene and Arnold, 
he was trusted by the commander-in-chief beyond any other 
general in the army. But despite his jovial good nature, he 
was unfortunately possessed of a hasty temper and an im- 
perious spirit, through which he was involved in frequent 
difficulties, both during and after the war, and which excited 
such animosity on the part of the other officers of the army 
as to lead them in many cases to ridicule his achievements 

there he has taken 200 prisoners and much baggage." — Powell's Levan 
Powell, -J/. 

Christopher Marshall, of Philadelphia, wrote in his diary under date 
of January 18th: "Sundry pieces of news today, but none to be depended 
upon from the camp, except that Gen. Washington had his headquarters 
at Morristown, and Gen. Sullivan with his advanced guard at Chatham, 
about five miles distance, and that Gen. Howe was at Amboy and the 
heights of Brunswick with his zrmy. "—Duane's Marshall's Diary, ir?. 

On March 11th, John Taylor wrote from Kingston to Gen. Schuyler: 
"1 left Morristown the 7th instant. . . . General Sullivan, who was station'd 
at Chatham is gone home to see his family."— iVAuy/^r Correspondence, Ban- 
croft's MS. Transcript, I. til, in Neic York Public Library. 

' Murray's Sullivan and the Battle of Rhode Island, 2, 4, 27; Schroeder's 
Life and Times of Washington, I, 523 ; Proceedings of the New York State 
Historical Association, 1906, 17. 



Sullivan's Dissatisfaction 191; 

and to question his reports.' He was greatly dissatisfied 
with his post at Chatham, which he felt to be far beneath 
his dignity, and longed for a larger field for the exercise of 
his abilities. His complaints of unjust discrimination were 
vigorous and persistent, although little concerning them can 
be learned; for his biographers, in emphasizing his engaging 
qualities, have failed to some extent to record facts tending 
to show that at times he was swayed by pique, envy, and 
similar unworthy emotions. But the following conciliatory 
letter, which was addressed to him from Morristown by the 
commander-in-chief, in an effort to reconcile his mind to the 
duties assigned him, is a clear indication of his discontent. 

Do not, my dear General Sullivan, torment yourself any longer 
with imaginary sliglits and inx'olve others in the perplexities you feel 
on that score. No other officer of raiiic, in the whole army, has so 
often conceived himself neglected, slighted, and ill treated, as you 
have done, and none I am sure has had less cause than yourself to 
entertain such Ideas. Mere accidents, things which have occurred 
in the common course of ser\'ice, have been considered by you as 
designed affronts. But pray, Sir, in what respect did General 
Greene's late command at Fort Lee differ from his present command 
at Baslcenridge; or from yours at Chatham? And what kind of 
separate command had General Putnam at New York? I never 
heard of any, except his commanding there ten days before my arrival 
from Boston, and one day after I had left it for Haerlem Heights, as 
senior officer. In like manner at Philadelphia, how did his command 
there differ from the one he has at Princeton, and wherein does 
either vary from yours at Chatham? Are there any particular emolu- 
ments or honours to be reaped in the one case and not in the other ? 
No. Why then these unreasonable, these unjustifiable suspicions? 
Suspicions which can answer no other end, than to poison your own 
happiness, and add vexation to that of others. General Heath, it is 
true, was ordered to Peekskill, so was General Spencer, by the mere 
chapter of accidents (being almost in the country), to Providence, 

\Vw V*""!'"!'' ^u- ^''."f' " °f <^'*-""al Sullivan, in Proceedings of the 
New ^ork State Historical Association, 19U6, 16, 17 e t ic 



196 History of Chatham 

to watch the motions of the fleet then hovering in the Sound. What 
followed after to either, or both, was more the effect of chance than 
design. 

Your ideas and mine, respecting separate commands, have but 
little analog>'. I know of but one separate command, properly so 
called, and that is in the Northern Department; and General Sulli- 
van, General St. Clair, and any other general oflScer at Ticonderoga 
will be considered in no other light, whilst there is a superior ofScer 
in the department, than if they were placed at Chatham, Baskenridge, 
or Princeton. 

But I have not time to dwell upon subjects of this kind. In 
quiting it, I shall do it with an earnest exhortation, that you will 
not suffer yourself to be teased with evils, that only exist in the 
imagination, and with slights, that have no existence at all ; keeping 
in mind, at the same time, that, if distant aimies are to be formed, 
there are several gentlemen before you, in point of rank, who have a 
right to claim a preference. 

I am, with regard, dear Sir, 

your most obedient, &c.' 

Among the American manuscripts relating to the 
Revolutionary War which are now in the Royal Institution 
in London is a letter from General Sullivan to Sir William 
Howe, dated at Chatham, February 8, 1777, enclosing, by 
order of General Washington, a list of prisoners captured 
by the British in New Jersey, and stating that if an exchange 
is consented to, he will send to New York, Amboy or Bruns- 
wick as many soldiers, and at such time, as may be ap- 
pointed. The prisoners named are: Caleb Potter, Zach 
Seikell, James Lambert, John Haines and John Williams, 
confined in New York; John Melick and William Brook- 
field, confined in Amboy; and Elias and Elihu Campbell, 
taken at Springfield and supposed to be in New York." 

' Ford's Writings of Washington, V, 289. 

" American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Carleton Papers, I, 88. 



Sullivan's Letters 197 

GENERAL SULLIVAN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham Feby 9th. 1777. 
Dear General 

My Disorder has not abated but has Really weakened me So 
much that I am totally unable to wait on Yr E.xcy to Day. with 
Respect to the Small pox my opinion is that the only way to get Rid 
of it is Immediately to Send all Infected persons to Some Back Town 
wliere an hospital Should be Erected ; to this place Should Every 
person be Sent if the Symptom of the Disorder appears on him. at 
the place Innoculation Should be allowed & Such Detachments of 
the Army Sent there from time to time for Innoculation as the 
Service will allow of. Dr Genl I am yours most Sincerely & affec- 
tionately, 

Jno. Sullivan. 
His Excy Gen'l Washington.' 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Chatham Feby 13th. 1777. 
Much Respected General 

I Recollect once to iiave Read That on the Fatal Ides of March 
when Cesar was going to the Capitol Artemidorus presented him 
with a paper Containing Those words "Cesar Beware of Brutus 
"Take Heed of Cassius come not near Casca have an Eye to Cinna: 
"Trust not Trebonius; Brutus Loves thee not These men have all 
"but one mind and That is bent agt Cesar if Thou art not Immortal 
"Look about Thee: Security give way to Conspiracy." The writing 
Artemidorus Desired him to read Instantly but he Delayed ^- was 
assassinated with this paper (b\- him unread) in his Pocket — the 
Reading of which might ha\e Saved him. I am as far from Super- 
stition & have as Little faith in the Intrail of a Beast as any man. 
Dreams have never Regulated my Conduct — yet for Some Reason 
I wish your E.xcellency would be prevailed upon not to go much 
to the Eastward of Morris Town, particularly about the Neighiinur- 
hood of Mr. Saml Ogden. The Eastern parts are Inhabited by 
Tories & no Troops of ours in that Quarter a plan to Entrap might 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 13, 220. 



1 9-8 History of Chatham 

be Easily Laid & very Easily Carried into Execution. I would not 
wish to make you Act Different from what your own Reason would 
Dictate if in my power but The people fear for you & they Seem 
to feel the Danger to which their Country would be Exposed Should 
Such an Event take place (which heaven forbid) I am not Credulous 
perhaps not Enough So & yet I fear Events believe me great Sir 
There is more weight in the unanimous voice & opinion of all The 
people than there could be in those Dreams and prodigies which 
Even Staggered Cesars Resolution & made him once Determine not 
to appear in the Senate, forgive me Dear Sir when I say That Wis- 
dom may Sometimes be Consumed in Confidence & The Noble 
Spirit which knows no fear may be the best assistant to its Enemies 
for Compleatg its Ruin for as Said the paper (which might have 
Saved Cesar) "Security gives way to Conspiracy" I can Scarcely 
Account for my fears nor can I prove What I Really believe which is 
that you have many Enemies Around you which if opportunity would 
permit would Readily assist to Entrap your Excy and Leave a 
wretched Army to Lament the Loss of That Leader who has been 
their only Support. Dear General if I have gone too far Impute it 
to my zeal for my Country & regard for your Safety 

I have the honor to be Dear General yours most affectionately, 

Jno. Sullivan. 

P. S. 

I wish not to Show Ingratitude to the Family of the ogdens by 
Suspicions they have Ever treated me in the most open Generous 
manner & I cant help believing the one with whom you Live is 
Sincere. I doubt of Samuel. I believe you will Soon have a Deposi- 
tion proving that old Mr. Ogden of New York was possessed of 
yr Proclamation before it was published here. This will prove a 
Correspondence. 

Yr Excys most obedt Servt j c i 

The letter given below was written by Sullivan to 
Meshech Weare, a member of the Executive Council of 
New Hampshire. The general's eulogy of the Yankee 
soldiers, and the comparisons he draws, remind us of the 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 13, 246. 



Sullivan's Letters 



199 



jealousy which existed during the Revolution among the 
troops from different parts of the country, especially between 
the New England men and the Southerners, whose mutual 
aversion, however trivial its causes, sometimes led to quar- 
rels which the presence of Washington himself was hardly 
sufficient to restrain/ 

Chatham, Feby 13th. 1777. 
Hon. & much respected Sir, — 

Your favor of the 14th. December never reached me till about 
a week past — since which I have had no time to answer it. All the 
Gentlemen officers appointed for the new army, are long since de- 
parted on the Recruiting Business ; otherwise I should gladly have 
comply'd with your request to send them off & supplying them with 
money. There would have been no difficulty in supplying Col. Scam- 
mel with the money, had he been on the spot when your letter arrived. 

Your Committee appointed four Captains at White Plains. They 
say they could enlist a number of men out of their old companies 
if they had the money. I, with some difficulty, borrowed the money 
as there was orders not for any to be drawn out of the Chest except 
by warrt from the Commander in chief who was then in Pennsyl- 
vania ; however, by advice of your Committee & by the assistance of 
General Lee, I obtained the money giving my Rect to be accountable. 
The whole amount was 28S0 Dollars, viz. 720 to each of the four 
Captains. I paid to Captains Scott, Gilman & Robinson & took 
their Receipts in behalf of the State. The other Captain was absent. 
I desired Captain Gilman to take the mone.\ & convey to him ; he 
thought best for him not to Risque it, but promised to send the other 
Captam to me; but our perpetual Hurry & constant marchings, I 
suppose prevented. :\Iy hurry at Morristown 5c sudden removal to 
the advance post prevented my attending to it while Captain Gil 
was here, and the misfortune is that I have entirely forgot the man 
name, so that it is out of my power to tell whether he is at home or 
here, or whether he is dead or alive. I am so far removed from the 
New Hampshire Troops and constantly employed, that I have as yet 

124 '2S0''' '^'^'■'■^"'' ''^"'^'•'"" Revolution, I, 330; Irving's Washington, II, 



man 

s 



200 History of Chatham 

had no opportunity to forward it to your State whose property it is. 
Captain Dearborn is now here; I will endeavor to forward it by 
him, with the Receipts, which you will be kind enough to keep for 
my security and that of the State ; he will set out in about a week. 

I hope, dear Sir, the Assembly of our State will pardon me for 
not writing them oftener of the State of affairs in the Army ;— of 
our victories & defeats, advances & Retreats ; but I have many things 
to allege in excuse: I do not recollect that I am a letter in debt to 
the Assembly (or one of its members) as none of them except your- 
self have ever honored me with a line. All of yours 1 think I have 
punctually answered. I have been so full of Business that I could 
not find time to w-rite ; but still I have a more weighty reason, which 
is, That I cannot give an account of a victoiy or defeat where I was 
an actor without saying something for or against ni\self ; & I have a 
great aversion to writing against myself & to write in favor would 
be evidence of a very suspicious kind. Indeed, I always had an aver- 
sion to fighting upon paper ; for I have never yet found a man well 
versed in that kind of fighting, that would practice any other. Per- 
haps you may want to know how your men (the Yankees) fight; I 
tell you exceeding well when they have proper officers. I have been 
much pleased to see a day approaching to try the difference between 
Yankee cowardice & southern valor. The Day has or rather the days - 
have arrived, and all the General officers allowed & do allow that 
the Yankee cowardice assumes the shape of true valor in the field; 
and the Southern valor appears to be a composition of boasting & con- 
ceit. General Washington made no scruple to say publicly that the 
remains of the Eastern Regiments were the strength of his army, 
though then their numbers were comparatively speaking but small ; 
he calls them in front when the Enemy are there; he sends them to 
the rear when the Enemy threatens that way; all the general officers 
allow them to be the best of Troops. The Southern officers and sol- 
diers allow it in time of danger, but not at all other times. Believe 
me, Sir, the Yankees took Trentown before the other Troops knew 
anything of the matter more than that there was an engagement, 
and what will still surprise you more, the line that attacked the Town 
consisted of eight hundred Yankees 5: there was 1600 Hessians to 
oppose them. At Princetown, when the 17th Regt. had thrown 3500 



Sullivan's Letters 201 

southern militia into the utmost confusion a Regiment of Yankees 
restored the day. This General Mifflin confessed to me ;— though 
the Philadelphia papers tell us a different story. It seems to have 
been quite forgot, that while the 17th Regt. was engaging those 
Troops that 600 Yankees had the Town to take agst. the 40th. &: 
55th. Regts. which they did without loss, owing to the manner of 
attack ; but enough of this ; I dnn't wish to reflect ;— but beg leave to 
assure you that Newspapers &: even Letters don't always speak the 
truth. You may venture to assure \our friends that no men fight 
better or write worse than the Yankees, of which this Letter will be 
good evidence. 

Dear Sir, I am with much esteem, your most obedt ser^'t, 

JnO. SULLIV.AN. 

Honble Meshech Weare, Esq.^ 

GENERAL SULLIVAN TO JOHN ADAMS. 

Chatham, February 14th. 1777. 

Dr. Sir, 

I hope you will pardon me for not writing to you oftener of 
the state of affairs in the way of our victories and defeats, advances 
and retreats, but I have many things to allege in excuse. I don't 
recollect that I am a letter in debt to you, as I think I have punc- 
tually answered yours. I ha\e ever been so full of business that I 
could find no time to write, but still I have a more weighty reason, 
which is that I cannot give an account of a victory or defeat where 
I was an actor, without saying something for or against myself, and 
to write in favor, would be evidence of a very suspicious kind. Indeed, 
I always had an aversion for fighting upon paper, for I have never 
yet found a man well versed in that kind of fighting that would prac- 
tice any other. Perhaps you may want to know how your men (the 
Yankees) fight. I tell you exceeding well, when they have proper 
officers. I have been much pleased to see a day approaching to try 
the difiference between Yankee cowardice and Southern valour; the 
day has, or rather the days have arrived ; and all the General officers 
allowed, and do allow, that the Y'ankee cowardice assumes the shape 
of true valour in the field, and though the Southern appears to be a 

' New Hampshire State Papers, VI, 163. 



202 History of Chatham 

composition of boasting and conceit; Gen'l Washington made no 
scruple to say publicly that the remains of the Eastern Reg'ts were 
the strength of his army, though their numbers were comparatively 
speaking, but small. He calls them in front when the Enemy are 
there — he sends them to the rear when the Enemy threatens that 
way — All the General officers allow them to be the best troops — The 
Southern officers and soldiers allow it in time of danger ; but not at 
other times. Believe me, Sir, although Yankees took Trenton before 
the other Troops knew anything of the matter — more than that there 
was an engagement, and what will still surprise )ou more, the line 
that attacked the Town consisted of but eight hundred Yankees, and 
there were sixteen hundred Hessians to oppose them. 

At Princeton when the 17th Reg't had thrown 3500 Southern 
Militia into the utmost confusion, a Reg't of Yankees restored the 
day. (This General Mifflin confessed to me) though Philadelphia 
papers tell a different story. It seems to have been quite forgot, that 
while the 17th Reg't was engaging those troops that six hundred 
Yankees had the town to take against the 40th. and 55th. Reg'ts, 
which they did without loss, owing to the manner of attack. But 
enough of this. I don't wish to reflect, but beg leave to assure you, 
that newspapers, and even letters do not always speak the truth. 
You may venture to assure your friends that no men fight better, or 
^vrite worse than the Yankees, of which this letter will be a good 
evidence. 

Dear Sir, I am, with much Esteem, Your most obedient servant, 

Jno. Sulliv.\x. 
Hon'ble John Adams, Esq.' 

GENERAL SULLIVAN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham Feby 14th. 1777. 
Dear General 

I am informed by Letter from the president of the Council! of 
New Hampshire Informing That that State Sensible of Colo Scam- 
mells merit appointed him Colo of one of their Regiments though 
he was from another State — I conclude therefore that This appoint- 
ment was Accepted by him before your Excys orders would have 
Reached him & as the (Infamous New England) Bounty will be an 

^Bancroft's MSS. of the ."American Revolution (Sullivan Papers), I, 
359, in New York Public Library. 



Artillery at Chatham 203 

Inducement to the Soldiers he will hold that appointment. Your 
Excy will therefore please to Supply officers to that Regiment of 
Such persons As your wisdom Shall Direct. 

I have the honor to he >our F-xcellencys most obedient Servant 

J NO. Sullivan. 
His E.xxellency General Washington.^ 

The artillery attached to General Sullivan's division at 
Chatham consisted of six companies or parties commanded 
by captains and captain-lieutenants, and numbered in all 
about 150 men. Sabastian Bauman of Wallkill, N. Y., as 
senior captain, was placed in command, and his correspond- 
ence indicates that while stationed at Chatham he was 
accompanied by his family. 

At the battle of Trenton the Americans had captured 
six Hessian field-pieces, two of which were subsequently 
sent to Morristown, while the remaining four were assigned 
to Bauman's artillery at Chatham. No record has been 
found to show where the guns were placed in this village, 
but the probabilities of the case strongly favor the suppo- 
sition that they were planted near the main road, on the 
rising ground just west of the river, forming a battery 
which would command the bridge and the ford below it. 

During February, 1777, General Greene decided that 
these six field-pieces should be sent to Philadelphia: and the 
order was transmitted to Captain Bauman by Lieutenant 
Samuel Shaw, the regimental adjutant at Morristown, 
who promised to send three other cannon to Chatham 
to replace the Hessian guns; but General Sullivan, who 
relied largely upon the strength of his artillery to guard 
the bridge and to protect the stores at Chatham, was most 
unwilling to reduce the number of cannon at this place. 
Bauman therefore found himself in the unpleasant position 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 13, 253. 



204 History of Chatham 

of being peremptorily ordered by the military authorities at 
Morristown to send the Hessian guns away, while the 
general under whose immediate command he was insisted 
that at least one of them should be retained. Some letters 
relating to this embarrassing situation are given below. 
They are selected from a large collection of Captain Bau- 
man's papers in the library of the New York Historical 
Society. 

LIEUTENANT SHAW TO CAPTAIN BAUMAN. 

Morristown, 17th. Feby 1777. 

Sir, 

Major General Greene having ordered that those Six Hessian 
Pieces taken at Trenton should be sent to Philadelphia to be bored 
out for Sixes, I shall be glad if you will have those four that are 
on your command with the Ammunition 5cc. got in readiness imme- 
diately, to be brought up here tomorrow morning ten o'Clock, when 
I shall send you some other Pieces with Ammimition Suitable in 
their stead. Pray don't fail of having them in readiness so that 
they may come up as soon as the others get down. 
I am Sir 

Yrs. 

S. Shaw, 
Adjt. Arty. 
Capt. Bauman. 
[Addressed :] 

To Capt. Bauman, Commanding the Artillery at Chatham. 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Morris Town 18 Feby 1777. 
Dear Sir, 

I herewith send you three Brass three Pounders in lieu of the 
four Hessian Pieces, concerning which I wrote you yesterday. I 
hope you have got them together so that they may come up as soon 
as these get down. There is one Ammunition Waggon, containing 
the Ammunition for the two long Pieces ; if you should want more 



CORRESPOXDENCE RESPECTING THE ARTILLERY 205 

you can resen'e it out of what )ou have for the Pieces that are to 
be sent up. And the remainder you will forward with the Pieces to 
this Place immediately. 

My Regard to the Oflicers if you please, and believe me to be 

Yrs. &c. 

S. Sh.aw. 
Capt. Bauman. 

[Addressed:] 

Capt. Bauman, Commanding the Artillery at Chatham. 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Morris Town, 19th. Feby 1777. 
Sir, 

The General having directed that all the Hessian Pieces which 
were taken at Trenton should be sent to Philadelphia for certain 
purposes, I am to acquaint \ou that your reserving one of them has 
been a means of preventing my sending the others off this morn'g 
agreeable to orders. Must beg you to Send the other up imme'diately. 
If Gen'l Sullivan should object to its coming away without another 
being sent in its place please to inform him, that as we shall have six 
pieces of Cannon less than heretofore, what he now has with him is 
more than a proportionable part of the whole. To say nothing of 
our want of men to supplv even what Cannon he will there have 
left. 

I am Sir 

Yrs 

S. Shaw, 

Capt. Bauman. ^'^jf- ^"M- 

[Addressed:] 

To Capt. Bauman Commanding the Artillen, at Chatham. 

CAPTAIN BAUMAN TO LIEUTENANT SHAW. 

Chatham Febv 19 1777. 
Sir. 

m my letter of \esterday, I acquainted you with the Reason why 
all the Hessian Pieces were not sent to morristown according to the 
generals Direction. 



2o6 History of Chatham 

General Sulivan Absolutely Declared he would not Let one go ; 
How Could I act any other ways then to Obey his Command. Gen- 
eral Sulivan and General Stephenson are gone out riding; as soon 
as they Return I shall lay it a second time before them and in which 
I can do no more then to act according to there Determination. 
Remain Sir 

Your humble Servant 

Sabast. Bauman. 
Copi To Sam Shaw. 

adjutant of artillery at morristown. 

LIEUTENANT SHAW TO CAPTAIN BAUMAN. 

Morris Town 19 March 1777. 
Sir, 

The Bearer of this, Lieut. Adam Hope, is directed by the Com- 
mander in chief to deliver into your care a Serjeant & Seven men 
lately enlisted, to do duty in the Artillery till such time as they may 
be called for. You will see they are taught the Exercise, and dispose 
of them in such a manner as you will judge best for the good of the 
Service. 

I am Sir 

Yrs. 

S. Shaw, 
Adjt. Artily. 
Capt. Bauman. 
[Addressed :] 

To Capt. Bauman Commanding the Artillery at Chatham. 

CAPTAIN BAUMAN TO GENERAL KNOX. 

Chatham, March 20th. 1777. 
Sir, 

Before I address you or enter upon public matters I shall beg 
leave first to congratulate you on your safe arrival at Morris Town. 

Your are well acquainted with a detachment of artilly ordered 
by you under the Command of Captn Allen to join Major General 
Sullivan's division, now under command of Major General Stephens. 
You are likewise sensible that those pieces, and ammunition wagons 



Correspondence Respecting the Artillery 207 

have been carried through hard and bad roads last summer, and part 
of the winter ; which occasioned the whole to be at present much out 
of repair and incomplete for a new campaign. 

During your Absence, I had the honor to Command this detach- 
ment of Artillery at Chatham. But found at my arrival a Wast 
deficienc}'; of Horses, Harnesses and all Kind of Tacklings so abso- 
lutely necessary in case of a Sudden movement which however is 
over in my humble opinion for the want of a good wagon master, and 
as the Service may Suffer thereby, I would beg you to mediate with 
the wagon master, in order to appoint one for this detachment — this 
detachment is under the eye of a general whom nothing escapes, and 
he trusting all to my care, found however something insufficient on 
our march ) esterday, things which arise from the same nature I have 
above related, and desired me to Write to you upon the Subject. 
And in the mean time to appl\ for proper anununition wagons and 
Drivers. 

And as nothing but the good of the Service lies to my heart, 
which \ou may perceive in an order I issued Some days ago. And as 
I dread nothing more, but a neglect may be lay'd to my Charge, and 
the care of Artillery' and stores at this place is not like the case of a 
Singall Company. I would therefore beg the General most earnestly 
to assist me both with orders and advise Should I be continued for 
a time in this command. 

S. Bauman, 

Capt. of Artilly. 
To General Knox. 

LIEUTENANT SHAW TO CAPTAIN BAUMAN. 

Morris 22 March 1777. 
Sir, 

Capt. Lieut Symonds being much indisposed, and standing in 
need of some person to look after him in quality of a Waiter, I 
must beg tiie favour of you to furnish him with a suitable one from 
the Detachment under your Command, to attend on him during his 
illness. 

I am Sir Yrs &c. S. Shaw, 

Adj Art. 



2o8 .History of Chatham 

Capt. Bauman. 

P. S. Your Letter was delivered to the General, but he having 
some other business on his hands prevented his answering it — he wdl 
see into the matter you mentioned the beginning of next week. 
[Addressed:] 

S. Bauman, Esqr. Commanding the Artillery at Chatham. 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Morris Town 25 April 1777. 

Sir, 

General Knox desires you would collect the Abstracts of Pay 
to the Continental Artillery under your command, to the first of 
this month and for^vard them to him without loss of time. The 
present state of the Corps, necessarily consisting of many detach- 
ments, calls for the utmost attention & care in making up the Ab- 
stract for those men, and the General presumes neither will be want- 
ing on your part. He would recommend it to the other Officers to 
be exceedingly careful in doing the same for their respective parties, 
as the men will be mustered and the Abstracts strickly examined, 
and no omission or mistake whatever be overlooked. 
I am Sir 

Yr most obedt hum Serst 

S. Sh.4W, 
Capt. Bauman. 
[Addressed:] 

To the Commanding Officer of Artillery at Chatham. 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Morris Town 1 May 1777. 
Sir, 

Since I wrote you respecting the Abstracts of Pay to be made 
out for the Detachment under your Command there has been some 
alteration in the establishment, a copy whereof I send you as Settled 
this day, agreeable to which you must make up your Abstract. 
I am Sir 

Yrs &c. 

S. Shaw, 



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Correspondence Respecting the Artillery 209 

Establishment of Pay for a Company of Artillery in the Service 
of the United States of America. 

Captain 50 Dollars per ° 

Captain Lieutenant 40 

Four Lieutenants at 33^ each 

Six Serjeants 10 

Six Corporals ) 9 

Six Bombardiers 

Six Gunners 1 

Drummers I Sj/^d 

Fifer J 

Twenty eight Matrosses 8j^d 

Total sixty. 

Colonel 100. Lieutenant Colonel 75. ^Lljor 62'/2 

Conductor of Stores 26 & ^jd. 

Direction of letters 

Address, Sir. 

To His E.xcellency General Washington — or to General Wash- 
ington Esqr. Commander in chief of all the Forces of the United 
States of America. 

To the Honble Major General Green. To the Honble Briga- 
dier General Knox. 
[Addressed:] 
To Sabastian Bauman Esq. Comrhanding the Artillery at Chatham. 

GENERAL KNOX TO CAPTAIN BAUMAN. 

gj^ Morris Town 25th May 1777. 

Your are with the detachment of Artillery field pieces and am- 
munition to march to morrow morning for the Camp near Bound 
Brook. 

Your route will be by the wa\- of Baskenridge. 

General Stevens will order a part)- of Infantry as an escort. 

If you have any Invalids you are to send them to Morris Town. 

Your Huble Servt 
Capt. Bauman. H. Knox. 

[Addressed:] 

To Capt. Bauman of the Artillery Chatham. 



CHAPTER IX 

General Stephen in command of the Post at Chatham— Reference to 
the Local Hospital— Stephen's Letters— Courts-Martial held 
here — Chatham occupied by the Philadelphia Associators — 
Sergeant Young's Diary — Captain Henry Lee ordered to 
Chatham — Morgan's Rangers stationed here — Sullivan's un- 
successful Expedition against Staten Island. 

ALTHOUGH the post at Chatham was commanded by 
General Sullivan in the winter and spring of 1777, 
Major-General Adam Stephen of Virginia was also stationed 
here. His stay in this village seems to have been con- 
temporaneous with that of Sullivan; and after the latter's 
departure, he succeeded to the command of the post. He 
was doubtless accompanied by his staff and bodyguard, and 
perhaps by a part of his division; but it is doubtful if a 
considerable number of Virginia troops were stationed in 
Chatham, as they are thought to have encamped during that 
winter near Middlebrook. A sermon preached to these 
soldiers by one of their chaplains in the spring of 1777, 
which was printed in pamphlet form and Is still extant, 
contains a dedication which is dated at Chatham, showing 
that it was prepared for the press at this place; but whether 
It was preached here Is open to question. It is entitled: 
The Love of our Country; A Sermon preached before 
THE Virginia Troops in New Jersey, by John Hurt, 
Chaplain. The dedication reads as follows: 

To Major General Stephen, and the Officers and Soldiers of 
the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Virginia Battalions. 

Gentlemen, 

In compliance with your request, I have published the follow- 
ing discourse. To your patronage it is humbly inscribed, not out of 
complaisance to your request of publishing it, but from the more 



Hospital at Chatham 211 

certain testimony of being an eyewitness that you approve its senti- 
ments by your actions; For after all the definitions of patriotism tliat 
ever was, or ever will be, given, this is the quintessence of it, "The 
"opposing ourselves foremost in the field of battle against the enemies 
"of our country." 

I am, Gentlemen, with all due respect. 

Your fellow soldier and humble servant, 

John Hurt,' Chaplain. 
Chatham, April 20th. 1777. 

The following requisition for supplies required for the 
military hospital at Chatham is reminiscent of that period. 
It is signed by Edward Duff, surgeon of the Fifth Virginia 
regiment, and is addressed to John Cochran, who, a few 
days later, was appointed surgeon-general of the Middle 
Department. 

Wanted for the Sick at Chatham. 
Sugar one Barrel 



Tea six Pounds 
Chocolate 12 Pounds 

Wine 15 Gallons 

Butter one Furlcin 
Hogs Lard -4^ 20 



fPort: if to be had, if 
not te-be-lw^ Midera 



Edward Duff 
-p Ass't Surgeon. 

Doctor Cochorn 

Morris Town. 
Direct'r of the Hosp'l G'l 
N. B. 

Please send these necessaries immediately, as the Sick are now 
in need of them. 

Indian Meal to Whippeny 
To be sent to Chatham. 

' Rev. John Hurt was chaplain of Scott's brigade. — Ford's Jnurnuh of 
the Continental Congress, XI, 850. 



2 12 . History of Chatham 

On the back appears the following in different 
handwriting : 

Sir Please Send to Chatham to Doc'r Duff one Barell Shugar 
and Eaverj' other thing that you have thats Rote on this order 
and Chargue it to the Genrall Hospatell. 
To the Com'r G'r 1 Bbl 262 lb Sugar. 

Fred Ming, D. Q. M. G. 



Aprill 1, 1777 

I have Deli'r 12 lb Lard 
6 lb Tea 



Endorsed : 

Gen'l Hospital.^ 



Addressed : 

Doctor Cochoin 

Morris Town. 



Another reference to the hospital at Chatham is found 
in the diary of Lieutenant Ebenezer Elmer, who, in May, 
1777, served as surgeon's mate under Dr. Lewis Holwell of 
Shreve's regiment. Elmer at that time was stationed at 
Spanktown (Rahway), and was in sole charge of the sick 
at Westfield, whom he was accustomed to visit every day. 
He writes in his journal: 

Sunday, May 25th. This morning we were alarmed before day 
by the Pennsylvania troops, which were moving towards Westfield 
and leaving the lines below entirely bare. About 8 o'clock I set out 
for Westfield to see the sick, but when I came there they were all 
moved off to Chatham, and the troops, stores & every thing gone off 
from here to Bound Brook." 

Some wartime letters written at Chatham during 
Stephen's sojourn in the village are given below. The first 
consists of a communication to the Virginia Gazette. 

' New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings, Ser. 3, VI, 12. 
'New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings, Ser. 1, III, 99. 



Stephkn's Correspondenxe 213 

Chatham (N. Jersey) Feb. 15, 1777. 
To Messrs. Dixon and Hunter, 

Gentlemen : — 

General Stephen's brigade has engaged the enemy's strong 
foraging parties three several times latel\-, and, with sustaining but 
little loss, did them \'ery considerable damage. On the first inst. they 
treated some of our wounded, who had the misfortune to fall into 
their hands, with the most savage barbarity — in consequence of that, 
the General wrote a letter to Sir William Erskine, a copy of which, 
and Sir William's answer, have done myself the pleasure to enclose 
you. 

We lost that day two gallant officers. Adjutant Kelly, of the 
5th. Virginia regiment, and Lieutenant Gregory of the 6th. Our 
hickory hearts, as usual, beliaved like heroes; ninety of them, under 
the command of the brave Colonel Scott, beat, at fair cutting, 230 
of their best troops. 

I am, ven,' respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Robert Forsythe, 
B. Maj. to Gen. Stephen.' 

A communication to the Pennsyhaii'ui Journal of 
March 26, 1777, is also qiiotecl: 

Chatham (New Jersey) March 10, 1777 
Messrs. Bradfords. 

Moved by duty to my country, & from a grateful respect for 
merit, I desire to acquaint the public, through your paper, that Col. 
Potter and Major Robinson with the officers and men of the North- 
umberland militia, under their command, have distinguished them- 
selves in the most assiduous and active service, during this winter's 
campaign, and that they have deservedly received the repeated thanks 
of General Sullivan, General Maxwell, and my self; under whose 
more immediate command, they ha\e so faithfully served. 

I am your's, &c. 

Adam Stephen, Major General. 

^ Almon's Remembrancer, IV, 213. 



2 14 History of Chatham 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO MAJOR ANGUS McDONALD. 

Dear Col. 

His Excellency General Washington has appinted )ou Lieu 
Col. of a regiment to be raised in Virginia and commanded by Col. 
Thurston. I desire you will not decline it, it is more honerable than 
if you had been appointed by convention or Committee ; as their ap- 
pointments are influenced by party or private views too often. Your 
appointment comes entirely from your own merit. Your Highland 
pride may stare you in the face and bellow out: Shall I serve under a 
***de* it is incompatable with my mistaken honor, merit, services, 
&c. &c. &c. I desire you will only Remember that in *br'y:** I was 
nothing in a Military way: in less than a year I was a col — Brigadier 
— Major General. Had not my attachment to the Interests of Amer- 
ica been superior to all Scrupolosity, I would have now been poking at 
home about the mill — the times require active men and the useful 
will be promoted and employed — it is Merit not sin**sity that will 
be attended to in the time of distress. 

As to your having engaged in the Sheriff's Business — This year's 
collections will be finished before the Regiments can be raised — and 
for the next year's collection, the Doctor and you can put it on a 
different footing. While you **g*e about collecting you can be re- 
cruiting. I am desirous to have you and Col. Thurston told me he 
would rather give a hundred guineas than you should decline & I am 
in hopes you will find it consistent with your interest. But should 
you be obstinate — G-d forbid: ^Vrite a polite letter to General 
Washington thanking his excellency for his notice and making the 
best excuse you can. 

I am Dear Col. 

Yours affectionately 

Adam Stephen. 
Chatham, March 15. 
P. S. 

Fighting is now become so familiar that unless it is a very great 
affair we do not think it worth mentioning. I shall only mention 
that my Division is an excellent school for a young soldier. We 
only fight eight or ten times aw*** — in short I have got nn men in 
such spirits — that they only ask when the enemy come out and where 



Stephfcn's Corrkspondexce 215 

they are — without enquiring into their numbers and so fall on. We 
have killed Jack Hall — you remember him — he was an old Capt. in 
the 52d Regt.^ 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Sir, 

Inclosed I send Your Excellency a Return of the men of my 
division, exclusive of General Maxwell's Brigade, of which I have 
got no return yet. 

I go on the Out posts to day, and do not approve of the mens 
being so dispersd as not to be Able to support one Another. The 
troops at Quibbletown were kept in awe b\ Appearances yesterday ; 
had they happily reinforced their pickets a little; or Show'd some 
men dispersd behind them, here &: there, & marchd to the Rear to 
Bound Brook — Their appearance would probably have occasioned a 
precipitate Retreat of the Enemy. 

There is a Certain Capt Russel who commanded a Company 
raisd in Loudon County for a Year only — He is now come up to 
this place; & has been in Binny Coty since we arrivd in October, 
but never joined us before, nor has he done a days duty, these Six 
months. Has no Company The men have all gone home, except a 
few which are inlisted into other Companies. His Lt Mucklehanny 
is likewise here— he has been all Winter wt the S [illeffible] at Wil- 
mington. I would be glad to have your Excellency Orders about 
them. Col Johnston knows these GentMen. The\ never applyd 
for Orders to go Recruiting, & the time of their Companies Service 
expird in February, and I dare say many of them Stragled home 
without being paid. Which hurts the recruiting greatly. 

I expect some intelligence from York— Paulus Hook, Bergen & 
Staaten Island ; & have the honour to be Sir, 
Your most Obt Ser, 

Adam Stephe.v. 
Chatham 1 4th April 77. 
p. s. 

Our people Catchd another of the Wretches in Cedar Swamp. 
If your Excellency has no particular Commands at present, I think 
' Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XV, 243, 



2i6 History of Chatham 

it best that General Mulhenberg should go on the Lines get ac- 
quainted with ye Country, & a habit of looking at the Enemy.^ 

COLONEL JOHNSTON TO GENERAL STEPHEN. 
Headquarters Morris Town 14th April 1777. 

Dear Sir 

Your favour of this date was delivered to his Excellency this 
Moment. I have it in Orders from him to inform you, that he 
directs a Court of Inquiry may immediately examine into Capt 
Russell's behaviour, of which Report must be made, to enable his 
Excelly to form some Idea of the Measures proper to be adopted 
respecting him. 

His Excellency thinks, That Genl Muhlenberg can & will be 
of much greater advantage to the service by equipping & preparing 
his Brigade for the Field, than getting acquainted with the Lines, 
in which nothing will be done after the Enemy take the Field. Genl 
Muhlenberg will therefore attend to the orders he received yester- 
day. 

The great difference in the state of Rawlings' Battalion between 
the last Retn & that of about a Month past, & which was the subject 
of a letter to you some time since. His Excellency wishes to have 
accounted for. 

Lieut. Bradford of Capt. Smith's Compy. in the same Battn 
has been here to excuse his absence from duty since December last. 
His Excelly will determine nothing 'till you (after making Inquiry) 
by means of the same Court that examines Capt Russell — report how 
the Affair stands. 
I am Dr Sir 

Yr most obedt Servt 

Geo. Johnston, A. D. C* 

FINDINGS OF A COURT OF INQUIRY. 

A Court of inquiry held at Chatham the 17th April 1777 by 
order of Major Genl. Stephen for Several purposes therein containd. 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 14, 271. 
"Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B III, pt. 1, 69. 



Stephen's Corrkspondencic 217 

Present 

Colo Geo Mathews Pr 

Lt Colo Parker Capt Long 

Capt Parramore & Lt Waring 

On Enquiry into the absence of Lt Bradford, the Court find 

that Mr. Bradford was sick about the 8th of Deer 1776 & apply'd to 

Capt Long of his Regiment for leave to look for quarters, that Capt 

Long referred him to Genl Mercer who commanded the Brigade, 

who gave him leave to find sick quarters in the Neighbourhood of 

Trenton ferry where his Brigade at that time layd. 

That Mr. Bradford instead of getting quarters thereabout went 
off to Maryland where he remain'd untill the 27th of March 1777 
at which time he joind his regiment at Chatham. 

Lt Bradford pleads sickness as an excuse for his Absence. The 
Court find by the Regimental returns of Colo Rawlings Battn. that 
Lt Bradford was returnd absent without leave. 

The Court then resumed the other part of Genl. Stephens' 
order, with respect to Capt Russell. As no particular charge is laid 
against that Gentleman the Court are at a loss in what manner to 
proceed on an enquin,- into his Conduct. 

We find the difference of late in Colo Rawlings Regimental 
returns owing to the return of Lt Bradford — one sergt & 5 privates 
who was reported absent without leave in that Regiment. 

Geo. ALathews Prd.' 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham 20th April 1777. 
Sir, 

Inclosed is an Acct of Capt Beals Expedition. The firing heard 
when I expected Capt Bell was attacked, was their New Recruits 
e.xersising. 

The Enemy came out from Amboy yesterday Six miles, took a 
light horse man belonging to the Jersies & Returned again with Im- 
punity. The mans horse was worth £120 I am told. Genl Vaughan 
was out, & the Brave Capt Conways house & plantation was burnt 
under the Genl Eye. G Maxwell & my Self had resolved on Re- 
taliation as your Excellency will observe by a Copy of the pass 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 15, 2. 



21 8 History of Chatham 

intended for Mrs. Smith; However the' perfectly Sensible of the 
Extensive influence it would have had, over Tories, Whigs & our 
Enemies, if any Spark of humanity Remains with them — yet, Sus- 
pecting that we might have been Accused of doing it wantonly, as 
we had not Consulted Your Excellency— We have hitherto let it 

alone. 

The reason I can possibly give for the Enemys returning with 
impunity, is our people not being Acquainted wt the County or their 
not Attending to their knowledge of it properly. 

I shall hear I expect from N York to morrow, & from Bruns- 
wick on Tuesday. 

I have the honour to be Sir 

Your most obt Sert 

Adam Stephen. 

p. s. 

Some Recruits are embodying for our Service about Hacken- 
sack. Shall I detail some men to join them, & beat up Col. Beards 
Quarters at Hoebuck.' 

MILITARY PASS. 

Mrs. Smith has been indulged in living happily at home, ever 
Since her husband deserted the Interests of America. 

Her house being now burnt, in retaliation for the loss of Capt 
Conways' house & plantation burnt up this Afternoon, Under the 
Eye of Genl Vaughan — 

Mrs Smith is permitted to go to the Same General for Accom- 
modation. " 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO RICHARD HENRY LEE. 

Dear Sir — 

I languished to hear from you, and at last received the pleasure 
of your letter yesterday. The sending Americans to their antipodes, 
was as wicked and extensive a plan, as the agents of the devil could 
form on earth. I suppose the intended attack on our state, is a 
creature of the volatile Burgoyne, engendered on Lady Dunmore 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 14, 3U. 
"Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 15, 1. 



Stephen's Correspondence 219 

or his Lordship, who doubtless will attend with his council, in order 
to add some more oderiferous beauties to his Ethiopian seraglios. 

Should they get the troops, which I reckon impossible, they may 
distress individuals, but can do nothing towards conquering our 
country. To prevent this attack, and obviate all difficulty, our 
present object ought to be the destruction of their army in the Jerseys. 
Virtue is certainly wanting, or we should have had men enough to 
have effected it before this time. The Virginians, with a few Jersey 
men, and as few Pennsylvanians, are likely to bear the burden of 
the day ; the myriads of the north ; the great warriors, who were to 
do the business, if we found money, seem cloyed of fighting, and are 
wonderfully backward in turning out. I wish no attention had been 
given to the defense of the western frontier, further than having the 
militia supplied with ammunition and embodied. The clouds which 
threaten from Canada and the savages, and all other petitcs. would 
have dispersed, yea, dissolved like meteors, upon the destruction of 
Howe's army. 

On Monday, the 14th, I resolved the enemy should make com- 
pensation for their excursion to Boundbrook ; I went along the out 
posts of my division, with General Maxwell, and planned the attack 
of their pickets, at Amboy and Bonum town. Captain Conway, of 
the first Jersey regiment, behaved to admiration, brought off three 
out sentries without disturbing the guard, and got the countersign ; 
in short, he had nothing to do but kill, or bring off, fifty men of the 
picket, when he was unhappily abandoned by the men of the second 
Jersey regiment, and obliged to drop the affair. 

The attack at Bonum town, was more successful, the picket 
were all taken or killed, except three. 

I am, with great esteem, dear sir. 

Your most obedient humble servant, 

Ad.-\m Stephen. 
Chatham, April 22A. Mil. 

Colonel Richard Henry Lee, 
in. Congress, Philadelphia.' 

^ Lee's Richard Henry Lee, H. 



2 20 History of Chatham 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham, 23d. April, 1777. 

Sir, 

The next important Intelligence I rec'd from N. York, was of 
a certain Conquest of America before October. 

Belts of 100 Guneas to 1, that Genl Howe would be in Phila- 
delphia the 1st of May. 

The Scarcity of timber & plank at York has prevented the 
finishings of the Bridge of Boats. 

Naval Stores So Scarce that they cannot fit out their transports 
for their Return home. 

Tar 5 Guneas p Barrel, Flour very plenty, & twelve months Salt 
provisions for 20,000 Men Sailors Scarce & Sickly aboard their Ships. 
On the 16th Between 40 & 50 Sail of Vessels saild, as was re- 
ported aboard the Ships, & in the City, for Halifax under Convoy 
of the Tarter. Uncertain whether there were troops aboard or 
not. It is said they went for Coal & forrage. 

Twelve large Ships arrivd at York from England on the 21st. 
Uncertain what they had on board. The Number of Tory Regiments 
at Bergen Confirmd. 

The Preston Commodore Hotham has taken a privateer Brig 
of 16 Guns fitted out at Charleston S Carolina. 

It is said that Delancy Brigade has Orders to Embark for S 
Carolina. 

They Intend to Waggon their boats from Brunswick. These 
goes into Each other & all into a Waggon. Their Horse, Grena- 
diers & light Infantry, on the flanks of the Convoy. May Heaven 
blast their purposes! We cannot boast of the Arm of flesh, so many 
Arms are Weakly from Inoculation & otherwise. 

They say the Continental Army Consists of 5,000 men, & that 
no more Can be raisd for Continental Money. 
I have the honour to be Sir 

Your most Obt. 

Adam Stephen. 

P. S. 

This will be deliverd to Your Excellency by Capt Mathews of 



Stephen's Correspondence 221 

the 4th. the fittest Officer I am acquainted with for a Major of a 
Regimt or Brigade. 
[Addressed ;] 

To His Excellency General Washington.' 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO AN UNNAMED ADDRESSEE. 

Chatham 23d April 1777. 
Sir 

By from B k I have advice that Eight hundred 

men came in the Ships from England. There is a Report that Rhode 
Island is to be Evacuated, but no account of the Arrival of the 
troops. The 15th & 27th did duty at York & my friend was uncer- 
tain as to the names of the 36th & 4th mentioned from Newark 
yesterday. 

Ten Boats for the Bridges are arrived at Brunswick, 16j4 foot 
in length four feet wide & 2^ deep; Waggons are fitting up for 
their Carriage. 

Genl Skinners force consists of about 1,000, to be joind by 
Some regular troops, & to proceed from Bergen through Sussex & 
the back posts of the Jerseys, when the troops march for Philadelphia. 

The Enemy have their provisions convoyd into the Delaware 
by Water. 

The Sick Sent from the Jerseys to N York. 

Brunswick not to be Evacuated. 

Thomas Long, not an American, nicknamed Bunk Eye, from 
his prominent Eyes, height Sj/S feet, age upwards of fortj'. Wears 
Whitish Cloaths, rather fair Complexion, He was Schoolmaster 
Near Raway, distressed the Inhabitants on the passage of the B 
troops through the Jerseys. He is gone for Philadelphia as a Spy, 
two days ago. He Associates with Quakers. It would be of im- 
portance to seize him, as the Enemy is much in want of Intelligence 
from that City. He has been there three times. 

Other Matters in their former State. 

I have got a York paper of the 17th, nothing Material but the 
great Success of the B Brick Expedition. 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 152, IV, 107. 



222 History of Chatham 

I will fonvard it, after learning a prayer that is in it, & am 
with great Respect Sr 

Your most Ob' hul Sv 

Adam Stephen. 

The Enemy attempted Retaliation the Night before last; but 
were beat back, pursued, & kept up all night. By a person from B 
town. They had one Man killd & 2 wounded. We sufferd none. 
Majr Crawford of ct troops behavd well. 

They Report in Brunswick, that they have killed 100 & taken 
200 more, & that the highlanders have got ample satisfaction for 
the loss of their picket. 

The Enemy Cannot be Ready to March this Week. They in- 
tend an Excursion for horses. All Should be orderd back from the 
Lines.' 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham 12th May 1777. 
Sir 

I can now with propriety Congratulate your Excellency on a 
Certain and Considerable Advantage gaind over the Enemys best 
troops ; by the Continental Troops of My Division. 

Col. Cooks Prov: Rgt begun the Attack, supported by the 1 
Regt of that State; they behavd well, & the Captains Chambers & 
Par distinguished themselves. 

Capt Phelps of Col Wards Regimt behaved well & the few 
men that were with him did honour to the Corps. 

The Combatants in the first Onset were within 50 yards. Some 
of them nearer, & None further off than 100 yards. 

The Conflict continued half An hour, when the Enemy gave 
way, leaving three Officers & thirty Nine men dead on the ground 
our people took possession of. 

The Enemy were Reinforced, & the Continental troops Sup- 
ported by 150 Virginians Compelld them to give way again, wt 
Considerable loss ; but as the Action had by this time Continued 
upwards of an hour ; & our Videt discovered about 2,000 men within 
a quarter of a Mile, on their wa.\' from Brunswick. 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, CC 152, 4, 103. 



Stephen's Correspondence 223 

The troops were prudently withdrawn, in the very Nick of 
time. 

We have three killd, three officers & 12 privates Wounded a 
Leut of Capt Chambers Company [illegible] & 4 men taken. We 
have lost Several Straglers taken plundering the Dead. I am Con- 
vinced the Enemy have at least 200 killd & Wounded. 

It was a Bold Enterprise. It was the time & Rapidity of the 
Attack that Secured us the Success we met with. 

I have the honour to be Sr 

your most Obt hubl Ser, 

Adam Stephen. 

[Addressed :J 

To His Excellency General Washington. 
[Indorsed:] 

From Genl Stephen with an Acct of the Attack upon Piscata- 
way General Stephens May 12th 1777 relating to an attack 
upon Bonum Town.' 

GENER.'^L WASHINGTON TO GENERAL STEPHEN. 

„ ,, _ , „ , Morris Town 12th May 1777. 

To M General Stephen 

Dear Sir 

Your account of the attempt upon the Enemy at Piscataway is 
favourable, but I am sorry to add, wideh- different from those I 
have had from others, (officers of distinction) who were of the party. 
I cannot by them learn, that there is the least certainty of the Enemy's 
leaving half the slain upon the Field, you speak of in \our letter of 
this date; that instead of an orderly retreat, it was (with the greatest 
part of the detachment) a disorderly route, and, that the disadvan- 
tage was on our side, not the Enemy's, who had notice of your coming 
and was prepared for it, as I expected. 

I am &ca. 

Go W.ASHINGTON.= 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham 14th May 1777. 
sir, 

I reced the honour of your Letter last night. Your Excellency 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 15, 166. 

" Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B HI, ISO. 



224 History of Chatham 

has not seen an Officer that was in the Action Saturday Night. They 
were of the party; but to their Staying at Such a distance from the 
Scene of Action The Surviving Highlanders owe their Existence. 

I took delight in mentioning the Troops to your Excellency who 
distinguished themselves. The Reverse gives me pain; hoping that 
time, Attention, & habit, will improve us. Whether owing to the 
order in the field, or to what, I am uncertain, but one half of the 
troops were not Engaged, & never had the ground gaind from the 
Enemy. 

Time will discover the Loss of the Enemy, a more Accurate 
Acct than I had, is Seldom Obtaind. 

The troops who Stayd a Quarter or near half a mile in the rear 
must needs have run damnd hard to retreat by the way the troops 
engaged did. But the fighting troops Were halted a Considerable 
time on a Rising ground untill they Had an Opportunity of Coming 
off. 

I can assure your Excellency from Intelligence that has never 
faild or disappointed me; that the Boats for the Bridge, are taken 
out of the Waggons, & put in the Water. The Expression of a 
Certain Officer of great Rank is "Sir Wm Howe has been pleasd to 
lay aside the Expedition of Philadelphia at present ; that Troops 
were daily expected on to fill all the Regiments, & 6000 of a Rein- 
forcement. Then they should Work us." 

They do intend an Attack on Bound Brook, they have had 
Spies out, Observing their Cannon, Encampment, and the first thing 
they do is to take possession of the [Moun]tain, with a Body of 
troops in one of these [illfffihle] They have procured good Guides 
for the purpose. 

Genl Lord Cornwallis, the Genls Grant, Mathews, & Lessly Sir 
William Colier & Sir George Osburn, were Reconntrg the ground 
about Drakes farm on Munday. 

They have pulld down the fences, & thrown Cut [illegible^ into 
the hollows for ^ of a Mile round. 

They talk of bringing their troops into more Compact Order; 
that they may be more Capable of acting either on the defensive or 
OfTensive. for this purpose the destroying Raritan Bridge is in Agi- 
tation, & forming a Bridge of Boats at Brunswick. 



Stephen's Correspondence 225 

The above Intelligence I esteem Certain & of the Utmost im- 
portance. 

I am with great Respect Sr 

Your most Obt hubl Serv 

Adam Stephen. 
P. S. 

I beg your Excellency will not countenance the Story of Officers 
at M [illeffible] town whose Regts were on the Lines; nor permit 
Officers to go home without ordering them of my division to Acquaint 
me. Col. Harkins had orders to move near to Bonum Town 
Sunday he sent me word that he was just Setting off for Virginia. 
[Addressed :] 

To His Excellency General Washington.' 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Sir 

The General Court Martial yisterday seemd to hurry o\er 
Business without that Solemn Attention that is necessary to Com- 
mand Respect & establish discipline. 

I orderd Doctor Griffith to be Summond to appear agt Capt 
Russel, Who had been frequently at Philadelphia, & seen the Capt 
appearing abroad wt a healthy Countenance. He was not Summond. 
The Captain notwithstanding the Repeated orders for all Officers to 
join their Corps, passd Six months wtout seeing Us untill his Com- 
pany had disappeard, we cant tell how or where ; and Doer Griffith 
informs me that to get his Company & Secure Rank, which he has not 
yet Merited by his Service, he Inlisted his Company for One Year 
only. 

The Court has clard Lt. Gill for going to Virga wtout leave, 
upon his Saying that he had leave from Capt Fox & although Fox 
could not give him leave, he never showd this Leave to the Court. 
With what Countenance Can Soldiers be punishd for neglect of Duty, 
if the Officers escape wt impunity? Gill had not done duty for Six 
months. I had given him leave to go home for his health from 
Portsmouth. 

The Tory Regiment made an Excursion as far as Acquaquen- 
' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 15, 185. 



2 26 History of Chatham 

nonk & two nights ago Commg Off Capt Marinus & Several others. 
I take a tour to day by Newark & Elisabethtown, for Intelligence &c. 
I have a great passion to wait upon the Tory Regiment, who are so 
mischievous to that Neighbourhood. 

I should think it advisable that GenI Herd should move his 
Quarters frequently, Taking post for a short time about Hackensack, 
Then down on Barbados Neck, Then to his old post again. The 
men will be more healthy, & the Enemy more puzzled. 

My Confidential Servant informd me that Several Captains & 
Lieutenants in the British Army at Brunswick are going to Embark 
for Britain, That officers & men are tired of the Service, That mixing 
with the men at a game at Coits, he heard them say, there were 
numbers of Rebels in England, that one half of the City of London, 
was of the same way of thinking wt the Americans. 

I have the honour to be Sir, 

your most Obt hubl Servt 

Adam Stephen. 
Chatham 15th May 1777. 

The Virginians laid in Ambuscade apprehpnded the Deserter & 
we had him tryd yesterday. They impute the Discipline to Tryon. 
I have ordered all Sallies off the Lines. 
[Addressed :] 

To His Excellency General Washington.' 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Chatham 17th May 1777. 
Sir 

This moment arrived. I have learnd that the Hessians em- 
barked in the Boats mentioned in my last, amount to about 350. 
That the troops sent over to the Jerseys was not so much to Execute 
any present Enterprise, as to guard agt one. As soon as the Enemy 
understood that the Artillery & troops were moved from Newark, 
They immediately gave orders for There troops to proceed to the 
Jerseys. It was reported here that M. G. Tryon was dead: He 
is neither dead nor wounded. 

There is not above 800 Effectives in N York. The Circum- 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 15, 209- 



Stephen's Correspondence 227 

stance which gives the greatest pleasure & Discovers the situation of 
the Enemy more Clearly; is, that the people formerly Attachd to 
Governmt ; are become our friends, & would willingly leave N York 
if they Could. 

On Tuesday last 40 of the Enemy most dangerously wounded 
on Saturday were Carryd into N York. 

Majr Eraser of the 2d Batt. of the 71t & Capt Stewart ot the 
Light Infantry were wounded. 

Bergen is in the same Situation as formerly It must be At- 
tempted to morrow night, or the Tide will not Answer again for 
a Week. Can so many men be spared from the Lines? 

I have a deserter from Bergen here, but he is so drunk, I liave 
ordered him to sleep. 

I hope a parcel of these deserters will be hangd, one on Every 
Road leading to the Enemys posts. 

I have the honour to be Sr 

your Excellency's Most obt hubl Serv. 
Ad.^m Stephen. 
[Addressed:] 

His Excellency General Washington.^ 

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO GENERAL STEPHEN. 

Head Quarters Morris Town 17th May 1777. 
Sir 

Yours with the plan for the attack upon Bergen is this moment 
come to hand. I see man\ difficulties to pre\ent the matters being 
carried effectually into execution. The first and principal one is, the 
known disaffection of the Country, which is such, that the instant 
such a Body as one thousand Men began to assemble, the Enemy 
would have notice of it, and the consequence would be, that were they 
strong enough they would prepare themselves to give you a Reception, 
and were they not, they would retreat from Bergen to Paulus Hook, 
and after they got beyond the Hills, it would be impossible for you 
to follow them. These have ever been my Sentiments upon this 
matter. The thing must be effected by Surprise or not at all, and 
I have no conception that Boats sufficient for the purpose could be 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, \V. 



228 History of Chatham 

collected, and such a Body of men embarked without the Enemy's 
having notice of it. 

In my opinion therefore, the Enterprise had better be laid aside, 
for I really think it would end in our being worsted, if the Enemy 
were prepared to receive us, or of their getting out of our way if 
they were not. 

I am Sir Yr most obt Servt 

Go. W.ASHINGTON. 

[Addressed:] 
Major Genl Stephen 
Chatham.' 

GENERAL STEPHEN TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham 24th May 1777. 

Sir, 

I wrote Your Excellency last Night from Col. Shrives's Quar- 
ters, where I was Concerting Measures for attacking the Enemys 
Camp near Amboy, before they had all left the Town, or could get 
the Camp fortifyd ; when I was disconcerted, by receiving the en- 
closd from Genl Mullenberg, & advice of the same sort from Genl 
Maxwell. 

This Manoeuvre is of very extensive Consequence. It gives the 
Enemy Command of the Country. 

There is not a Sentry betiveen the Pickets of this place and 
Amboy. 

Traitors have no interruption in Corresponding with, or Sup- 
plying the Enemy with provisions. 

They may make themselves masters of Westfield where we have 
Some Stores, of Springfield where we have an hospital of 25 Sick & 
wounded & Parrels troop of horse without arms. 

They will Certainly overrun Newark & Elisabethtown at the 
Latter I by the Address of Col. Spencer had Settled a Certain Cor- 
respondence wt N York & Staaten Island. An Authentic Cor- 
respondence is of immense advantage. 

And the Enemy taking possession of these places again tho' of no 
great importance, Will make a figure in their pompus Announciations 
from St. James's. 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B HI, pt. 1, 174. 



Stephen's Correspondence 229 

Unless the Enemy is immediately attackd to Advantajic I am 
apprehensive we shall lose Credit by this Movement. 

I forgot to mention last Night that a French Ship is taken & 
Carryd into N York, the day before yisterday; with Seventy men on 
board. What they are, or what the transport had aboard we expect 
to hear in a few days. 

The Boats intended for the Bridge, ly below the New Bridge at 
Brunswick, in the River. 

Not the least appearance of a Movement. They are employd 
in levelling the Streets of Brunswick. 

A new Redoubt, with Cannon, erected, about 1 mile N W of 
this Side of the End of the New Bridge. 

They are more Strict than formerly in admitting people. The 
Common Soldiers are damning the French for Supplying Us, c^ there 
is a Report amongst them. That the Duke of Richmond & Ld Camb- 
den are sent to the Tower. 

I have the honour to be Sr 

Your most Ob hu Ser 

Adam Stephen. 
Chatham 24th May 1777. 
[Addressed :] 

His Excellenc\- George Washington.' 

FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE. MAY 28th. 1777. 

_ Extract of a letter from the Jersies, dated Chatham, May 10. 
"Since my last, a considerable number of General Stephen's 
division, being hastily assembled from the different po-ts, attacked 
the 42d, 2d battalion of the 71st. and 33d, and six companies of light- 
infantrj', posted at Bonum-town, Piscataway, and in that neighbour- 
hood. It was a bold enterprize as the enemy might be easily rein- 
forced from Brunswick, the Landing, or Amboy. We had learned 
the hour of their dining, and gave them time to take a drink and 
made a sudden attack upon them about half an hour after four 
Among their killed were Major M'Pherson, 3 Subalterns, 3 Ser- 
geants, and as we are informed by a person from Piscataway 60 
privates. Major Frazer of the 71st. and Capt. Stewart of the' light 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, IS, 298. 



230 History of Chatham 

infantry wounded. It is said 120 privates were wounded, 40 of them 
dangerously, and carried to New York. We lost 2 killed, 1 Captain, 
3 Subalterns, 1 1 privates wounded, 1 Subaltern dangerously wound- 
ed, and taken with about 12 of his division. 

"This great advantage gained over the best of the enemy, has 
compelled them to send from New-York, one battalion of Hessian 
Grenadiers, the 10th. and 55th. British regiments, to reinforce those 
posts." 

We do not know how long General Stephen remained 
at Chatham in the early part of 1777, but, although it is 
unlikely that he stayed here continuously, he seems to have 
made this place his headquarters until the latter part of 
May. That he was here as early as January — not long 
after Washington established his winter quarters at Mor- 
ristown — is indicated by the mention of his name in the 
following order, which was directed to Brigadier-General 
John Cadwalader, commanding a brigade of Pennsylvania 
troops at Morristown. 

Sir. 

March your Brigade from hence to Chatham or the Posts below 
that. Consult Genls Sullivan and Stephen upon the Propriet\' of an 
attempt upon any of the Enemy's Posts, — or giving them a formidable 
alarm — and, if you shd find a willingness in your officers and Men 
to the undertaking of any practicable Scheme, do not omit, in con- 
junction with the Troops at the Posts of Chatham &co to prosecute 
it. Genl Sullivan is already wrote to on this head. 

From thence you are at liberty to March your Brigade to Phila- 
delphia, and when they are dismissed, communicate to them my 
Sense (contain'd in an address to yourself) of the Important Services 
they have rendered their Country at this severe & inclemant Season. 
Given at head Quarters, 
Morris Town this 23d day of Jany, 1777. 

Go. Washington.' 

' Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XXXII, 164. 



The Philadklphia Associators 231 

Cadwalader's brigade was styled "The Associators of the 
City and Liberties of Philadelphia." It was organized in 
that city when the news of the fight at Lexington was re- 
ceived; and originally consisted of three separate battalions, 
of which the third, numbering about i;oo men, was com- 
manded by Cadwalader who then held the rank of colonel. 
This battalion was called the "Greens," in reference to the 
color of its uniform; but it was perhaps better known as the 
"Silk Stockings," a name suggested by its aristocratic con- 
nections, many of the leading families of Philadelphia 
being represented in its ranks. Toward the end of July, 
1776, the Associators joined Washington's army, and, at the 
suggestion of the commander-in-chief, they were reformed 
into a single brigade under Cadwalader, who was promoted 
to the rank of brigadier-general; Lieutenant-Colonel John 
Nixon succeeding him in command of the third battalion. 
The Associators fought bravely at Princeton, and remained 
in winter quarters at Morristown for a few weeks; but they 
seem to have rendered no other services of importance 
except at Valley Forge during the winter of 1778.' 

The movement of these troops from Morristown to 
Chatham, in compliance with the above order to General 
Cadwalader, is described in the diary of William Young, a 
sergeant of Captain Thomas Fitzsimmons's company in 
Colonel Nixon's battalion. An excerpt, commencing at 
Morristown on January 22, 1777, is quoted. While the 
brigade remained at Chatham, Sergeant Young, with others, 
was billeted in the house of Enos Ward, which is still stand- 
ing on the northerly side of Main Street a short distance 
west of Elmwood Avenue. 

Wed 22. At twelve came orders to hold ourselves in Readiness 
to march to-morrow. 

TJiurs. 23 All hands getting Ready for a march, being 

under orders to march at 9 o'clock Set out about 12. Reached 

'Hart's Nixon; Wharton's Colonial Days and Dames, 145, 185. 



232 History of Chatham 

Bottel town marched on to Chatam town. There halted and went 
into Quarters. It is now snowing. Great firing heard at near Bruns- 
wick This town is miles from Morriston. The Mistress 

of the house kindly Let me and son Lay in her Room by the fire-side 
for which favor I Desire to be thankful. Mr. Towers continues to 
be very Bad. Our people are Buying Rum of a New England man. 
The man of the house is very friendly. Our people are very unruly 
and almost beyond Shame. A great Deal of Swearing amongst them 
all. The whole Brigade is very uneasy on account of our Route. 
Some Swear they will go home To-morrow by themselves. We are 
now about 14 miles from Elizabethtown near forty from Princetown, 
25 from Brunswick. Our road Leads within 8 or 9 miles from 
Brunswick. I fear all our men are not honest. What a wretch is 
man. Death that should effect a soldier more Immediately, yet he 
must be doing Mischief with some of our company. There are some 
that cannot let anything Lay that comes in their way. For in this 
house one of them was Detected in taking a gammon out of the 
Cellar. Great God make us Better men. Renew us by thy Holy 
Spirit. Convince us of sin in all its shapes, and Bring us near thyself. 
In Mercy change our hearts, and then and not till then shall we do 
as we would be done by. Grant this for Jesus Sake, Amen and Amen. 
Friday 24. Slept But Indifferently. Rose before day. It 
Snowed all night. This Morning it turned to Rain and very Sloppy, 
it being the day we were to March home. Our company are uneasy 
to be home, but it being Sloppy agree to stay a day or two Longer 
in hopes it will be clear weather. One of our men had taken from 
Mr. Enos Ward, the Master of the house where we are Quartered, 2 
Gammons out of the Cellar, and secreted a pair of Breeches, and 
an under Jackets, all of which were proved on him (Joseph Crovat). 
Mr. Enos Ward appears to be a kind friendly man, a shoe Maker by 
trade. Mr. John Towers continues to be very Bad. The Doctor 
has been with him. Breakfasted with [the] man of .the house with 
my son ; for which I paid 1 / 8. News just came that our people yes- 
terday near Brunswick attacked the Regulars, then made a hasty 
Retreat which Drew them into an Ambush when our people sur- 
rounded them, Killed a good number, took 1500 prisoners. Our 
people were under the command of General Sullivan. Praise be to 
thee O God! How many of our people are Lost I know not. It 



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"Light-Horse Harrv" Lee 233 

stills Rains, and like to Rain all Day. It is now very Sloppy and 
like to be more so as the Snow melts. As soon as it clears up we 
purpose to Set out for home if heaven permits.^ 

Sergeant Young's company set out a little after 8 o'clock 
the next morning, marching by way of Pluckamin and Lam- 
ington. 

In April, 1777, the name of Henry Lee appears in 
connection with the history of Chatham. This gallant young 
soldier was then a captain in Colonel Theodoric Bland's 
(the First) regiment of Continental light dragoons, and 
it was not until a later date that he was promoted to the 
rank of major, and won undying fame as "Light-Horse 
Harry," the commander of the celebrated partisan legion. 
Two of his letters are reproduced. They are addressed to 
Colonel Bland at Morristown, and allude to the latter's 
order that he should take post at Chatham. 

Boundbrook, April 18th. 1777. 
Dear Colonel 

Your favor by Lt. Payton, I received yesterday; am much 
obliged to you for your favorable sentiments of me and mine. I find 
my station is Chatham; you require that I march thro' Morristown. 
How happy would I be, if it was possible for my men to be furnished 
with caps and boots, prior to my appearance at head quarters. You 
know, dear colonel, that, justly, an officer's reputation depends not 
only on the discipline, but appearance of his men. Could the articles 
mentioned be allowed my troop, their entrance into Morris would 
secure me from the imputation of carelessness, as their captain, and 
I have vanity to hope would assist in procuring some little credit to 
their colonel and regiment. Pardon my solicitations on any head, 
respecting the conditions of my troop; my sole object is the credit of 
the regiment. 

Yours, affec't. etc. 

' Pennsylvania Magazine of History, VHI, 272. 



234 History of Chatham 

Bound Brook, April 25th. 1777. 

Dear Col 

I cannot but blush when your letter to Captain Harrison reminds 
me of my neglect in [not] sending up the pay roll of my troop for 
the present month. I have no excuse to plead, but the incessant duty 
with which I have been occupied, by order of General Lincoln. It is 
enclosed in this letter. As it will arrive at the paymaster's quarters 
before Captain Dandridge's possibly can, the real damage will be 
none; but the example is injurious to order and unpardonable. 

On receiving the late regimental orders, by which my troop was 
ordered to Chatham, I acquainted General Lincoln of my removal. 
He required me to tarry a day or two till he could hear from Col. 
Bland, to whom he intended to write. The purport of his letter 
was to request my detention with him. I thanked the general for 
his politeness, tho' did not require his intercession with you on that 
head, fearing lest I might be accused of local partiality, which I con- 
ceive improper in any officer. On your answer's coming to hand, 
I sent out my quartermaster sergeant, with his supernumeries, this 
morning, expecting to follow this day with my troop. The general 
still detains me. His reason, I believe, is an attempt meditated against 
the Hessian picquet. It will be executed on Saturday night. On 
Sunday I hope to arrive at my station. 

I have mentioned these matters to you, that you may know the 
real cause of my tarrying here, and not be induced to judge me as 
acting with impropriety. 

Your most obt servant and affectionate friend, etc' 

During the following July Chatham was occupied for 
a few days by Colonel Daniel Morgan and his battalion of 
skirmishers — "Morgan's Rangers," as they are known in 
history — whose daring exploits and romantic adventures 
give them the pre-eminence of the various commands of the 
Revolutionary army. Some uncertainty exists concerning 
Morgan's birthplace, though it is generally supposed that he 
was a native of New Jersey, and the assertion has been 

'Campbell's The Bland Papers, I, 51, 53. 



Morgan's Rangers 235 

made that he was born in or near Morristown ;' but at an 
early age he became a resident of Frederick (now Clarke) 
County, Virginia ; and he served in the militia of that State, 
at first as a teamster and private, and finally as an ensign, 
during the French and Indian War. having joined Brad- 
dock's expedition at the age of seventeen. He commenced 
his Revolutionary career soon after the outbreak of hostili- 
ties as captain of a rifle company which he himself had 
raised; and later was commissioned by the Continental 
Congress colonel of the Eleventh Virginia regiment. In the 
spring of 1777 a corps of sharp shooters was formed, con- 
sisting of five hundred picked men carefully selected from 
the best regiments of the various States, and Morgan was 
placed in command. Washington directed this corps to act 
as a body of light infantry, exempting it from the common 
duties of the line.'' It was divided into eight companies ; the 
principal officers at the time of its formation being Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Richard Butler of Pennsylvania and Major 
Joseph Morris of New Jersey.' 

Not only was Morgan's battalion of the greatest ser- 
vice in general action, but it is declared to have formed a 
better corps of skirmishers than had ever been attached to 
any army, even in Europe. Its value and efficiency were soon 
recognized, and a system of independent rifle corps was 
adopted by both British and Americans, especially in the 
South. 

Morgan's Rangers played a conspicuous part in the 
campaign of 1777 in eastern Xew Jersey, and were highly 
commended in official reports. On June 30th the British 
withdrew to Staten Island, thus terminating the border 
warfare which had continued in Xew Jersey since the first of 
January; and it was after their departure that Morgan led 

' Barber's Xew Jersey Historical Collections, 395. 

' Sparks' Writings of Washington, I\', 461. 

= Graham's Morgan, 122; Walton's U. S. Army and Xavy, I, 54. 



236 History of Chatham 

his command to Chatham. Here he remained ahoiit a week, 
awaiting orders to determine his further movements. These 
orders, written by Washington's aides-de-camp, are given 
below. The Lott farm, at which the first is dated, was near 
Troy, N. J. 

COLONEL TILGHMAN TO COLONEL DAYTON. 

Mr. Lett's Farm, 11th. July 1777. 
Dear Sir, 

The Army marched from Morris Town this Morning with 
intent to move towards the Clove, if therefore, you obtain any 
further intelligence, you are to send it after us. The Army will 
halt this Evening near Rockaway Bridge^ and will move forward 
in the Morning except any fresh accounts should change the present 
disposition. If the Enemy make any move either up the North or 
East Rivers be pleased to send immediate intelligence to Col. Morgan 
who lays at Chatham, that he may govern himself accordingly. We 
have [no] further accounts from Ticonderoga which [illeffible] us 
believe that the accounts of it having fallen into the Enemy's hands 
are without foundation. 
I am Dear Sir 

Yr most obt Servt 

Tench Tilghman. 
Col. Dayton 

Elizabeth Tovvn." 

ORDERS TO COLONEL MORGAN. 

Mr. Lotts Farm 11th July 1777. 
Dear Sir 

Upon a presumption that the Enemy intend to move either up 
the North or East River our Army marched this Morning from 

' During the Revolution the name "Rockaway Bridge" was applied to 
the structure spanning the Rockaway River on the road from Troy Hills to 
Lower Monrville. It had no reference to the village of Rockaway, which 
is several miles farther up the stream. — Erskine's Army Maps in Library of 
the i\'eiv York Historical Society. Many other authorities might be cited. 

' From original in possession of a private collector in New York. 



Morgan at Chatham 237 

Morris Town and will proceed leisurely towards the Clove, unless 
we have some certain intelligence that they intend Southward. 

Colo. Da\tuii who is at Elizabeth Town watching the Motions 
of the Fleet will give you immediate information which way they 
go. If up the East or North River, you will follow directly, keeping 
upon the right Flank of the main Army. The Road is rather better 
than the one we march. You need not harass your Men, but come 
on leisurely, if there is any occasion to hurrj' we will send an express 
to you. 

I am Dear Sir 

Yr most obt Servt 

Texch Tilghman. 
[Addressed:] 

To Colo. Morgan at Chatham.' 

Head Quarters near Clove, 
1 9th July 9 o'clock. 
Dear Sir 

We have received your Letter of this date, from the Intelli- 
gence receiv'd this afternoon we have every reason to believe that 
the Enemy are about to move up the North River. It is therefore his 
Excellency's Orders that upon receipt of this you March your Corps 
to the Bridge at the great Falls, from thence to Paramus, thence to 
Kakegate & thence to Haverstraw, there to observe the motions of 
the Enemy, & if they land on the West side of the river below the 
Highlands you are to take possession of the Road to the forrest of 
Dean Furnace, & oppose their penetrating that way — but if the 
Enemy push up the River you are to get over the Mountains to fort 
Montgomery & there wait for further Orders. 

Your Baggage (except what you think necessary for the Men 
to carry) is to be sent by the nearest Route towards this place & 
from hence to whatever place the Army is, under a small Guard. 

The Swivels iSiC which you mention, you are to send to the 
Commissary of Military Stores at Morris Town. You will Observe 
to take as much cook'd provision with you as you conveniently can. 

'Morgan's Revolutionary Papers, Myers Collection, 1037, in New York 
Public Library. 



238 History of Chatham 

Inclos'd you have a Letter for Colo. Bland, wch you will forward 
immediately to him by Express. 
I am Dear Sir 

Yr mo Obed Servt 

John Fitzgerald. 
[Addressed:] 

Colo. Morgan.' 

A noteworthy incident which occurred here during 
August, 1777, was the departure of Sullivan's expedition to 
surprise and capture a force of about 1,000 refugees on 
Staten Island. These "New Jersey Volunteers," as the 
tories styled themselves, were gathered from various parts 
of this State, forming a corps under the command of General 
Courtlandt Skinner, and had their base of operations on 
Staten Island, whence they made frequent raids upon the 
patriots in the vicinity of Elizabeth. In order co check their 
activities. General Sullivan, who was then encamped at 
Hanover, planned a night attack upon Staten Island. At the 
head of 1,000 men, selected from the brigades of Smallwood 
and De Borre, he started from Hanover on August 21st, 
and, marching by way of Chatham, where he halted for rest 
and refreshment, he reached Elizabeth in the evening. 
There he was reinforced by the First and Third New Jersey 
Continental regiments, commanded respectively by Colonels 
Ogden and Dayton, together with 100 militia. 

The tories were found to be scattered in small detach- 
ments for a considerable distance along the shore of the 
island, thus necessitating a division of Sullivan's forces. 
The operations of Ogden and Dayton were eminently suc- 
cessful, but Sullivan himself was not so fortunate. He was 
unexpectedly confronted with a strong force of British 
regulars who came to the aid of the refugees; and as he had 
failed to provide a sufficient number of boats to secure his 

' Morgan's Revolutionary Papers, Myers Collection, 847, in New York 
Public Library. 



Attack Upon Staten Island 239 

retreat, his rear guard fell into the hands of the enemy. 
This misfortune overbalanced the success of Ogden and 
Dayton, and the enterprise as a whole was regarded as a 
failure.^ 

Captain Robert Kirkwood of the Delaware regiment 
thus records in his journal his adventures in Sullivan's expe- 
dition : 

Thirsday 21st. Our Brigade March 'd at 11 O'CIock [from 
Hanover] by the Way of Bottle Hill which is 5 miles from thence 
to Chatham seven miles and there Refresh'd from thence we march'd 
thr'o Spring field to Elizabeth Town point ten miles there our men 
unloaded themselves of their knapsacks & Blankets & Crossed the 
River in the Greatest Silence on to Staten Island all which we effected 
By day Break, from thence we proceeded towards the East end of 
the Island where coming near A Guard Consisting of About 100 
Men of British Troops but upon first of us they Ran away at this 
place We Destroyed near 3000£ of Stores Besides A Quantit)' brought 
off; we traveled near 20 Miles on the Island but Could not see any 
more of the Enemy. About 1 O'CIock Came to the Blazing Star 
[Ferry] Where we all Cross'd but 100 men who were Detain'd about 
Bringing over Stock these were attacked & most taken Prisoners 
after they had fired all their Ammunition away that night the 
Prisoners beat off the Guard & the greatest part of them got over 
the River, the Prisoners that were taken from them were as follows 
Viz: 3 Cols; viz Barton, Lawrence, & Allen, 4 Captains 6 Subal- 
terns & 150 Privates all of the greens.- 

' Hatfield's Elizabeth, 462; Irving's Washington, III, 195. 
'Delaware Historical Society Papers, LVI, 154. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Second Continental Light Dragoons in Winter Quarters at 
Chatham — A Cavalry Sword unearthed on the Camp-ground — 
Correspondence respecting the Cavalry — Letters of Governor 
Livingston relating to the Overtures of the British Government. 

DURING the winter of 1777-8, although the main army 
was encamped elsewhere, the military was well repre- 
sented in this neighborhood. Rev. Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle 
tells us that a considerable number of officers and privates, 
chiefly New England troops, were stationed in Bottle Hill 
(Madison) and vicinity; and, while it is probable that some 
occupied the huts which had been built during the previous 
winter in the Loantaka valley, most of them were billeted 
in private houses, where, as before, the best rooms were set 
apart for their use.^ 

It was at this time that a detachment of the Second 
Continental light dragoons (Colonel Elisha Sheldon's regi- 
ment) was ordered to Chatham for winter quarters, as we 
learn from the memoirs of Major Benjamin Tallmadge, by 
whom this detachment was commanded." The major fails 
to state the time of his arrival and departure, beyond saying 
that he was ordered to Chatham at the close of the opera- 
tions before Philadelphia, in January, 1778, and that 
he was directed to leave in the early spring; but from war- 
time correspondence it appears that he was in Trenton as 
late as January 12th, so it was probably about the middle of 
the month that his troops were removed to Chatham; and 
from the same source we learn that the detachment left the 
village to join the army under Gates at Fishkill on or about 
the fourth of the following June. 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 329. 
'Johnston's Tallmadge's Memoirs, 38. ' ■ 



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Cavalry av Chatham 24 1 

Sheldon's regiment of Continental light dragoons was 
recruited mainly in Connecticut, but it numbered among its 
members some officers and men from New York and New 
Jersey. The Fifth troop contained 41 Jerseymen in a total 
of 76 rank and file.' 

Tallmadge so expresses himself in his memoirs as to 
give the impression that Sheldon's entire regiment spent the 
winter in Chatham;- and the impression is confirmed by 
Washington, who, in a letter to Colonel Stephen Moylan, 
dated May 24, 1778, directing him to march to Valley Forge 
with iiis regiment of Continental cavalry and those of 
Colonels Bland and Baylor, adds: "Sheldon's is to remain at 
Chatham."' As a matter of fact, however, Sheldon's 
dragoons were scattered in various detachments at that 
time, and only two troops were quartered here. The entire 
regiment was never assembled as a unit under Colonel 
Sheldon until the following August.^ The cavalry at Chat- 
ham was under the immediate command of Tallmadge, for 
although Sheldon appears to have visited the encampment 
from time to time during the winter, he did not remain here 
continuously. 

While we know the approximate length of time during 
which the dragoons remained in the village, the location of 
their encampment cannot be ascertained. No record relating 
to the subject has been found, and even tradition fails to 
point out the spot. It is highly probable, however, that the 
troopers occupied the property used as a camp-ground by a 
portion of the Continental army in the summer of 178 1, 
lying south of the turnpike and east of River Road on the 
Union County side of the Passaic — a situation which wouki 
have been eminently desirable and convenient for a detach- 
ment of cavalry, as the adjacent racetrack would afford ex- 

' Walton's U. S. .•\rmy and Navy, I, 40; Connecticut Men in the Revo- 
lution. 

■Johnston's Tallmadge's Memoirs, 38. 

"American Catholic Historical Researches, New Series, \', 168. 

'Johnston's Tallmadge's Memoirs, 129. 



242 History of Chatham 

cellent facilities for drilling and exercising the horses, while 
the tavern on the opposite side of the turnpilce would fur- 
nish suitable and comfortable quarters for Major Tall- 
madge and the other officers. 

On October 9, 1885, a Revolutionary sword was found 
which may have belonged to one of these troopers. The 
camp-ground is bisected by a stream known as Spring Brooic 
which widens into a pond at this point, and the sword was 
unearthed by William Phipps, Jr., of Chatham, who was 
employed with others in enlarging and deepening the pond 
to facilitate the harvesting of ice. The spot where the relic 
lay, though now submerged when the pond is full, is near 
the shore, and is believed to have been above high water 
in Revolutionary times. It was thought that the weapon 
was buried with the remains of a deceased soldier, a sur- 
mise which was confirmed by a veteran of the Civil War, 
who stated that the vicinity of a water-course was a favorite 
place for war-time interments because moist earth is easy to 
dig; and that it was not unusual, when interring a deceased 
soldier, to bury his sword or musket with him; and the sup- 
position was further strengthened by the fact that Mr. 
Phipps also found two pieces of board about fifteen inches 
long by four inches wide, which, though decayed, retained 
enough of their original shape to show that they had been 
■"halved" together, and which might have formed part of 
a rude coffin. 

The sword, when new, was a very formidable weapon. 
Some surprise was occasioned by its size and weight, which 
were such that none but a muscular and powerful man could 
wield it effectively. Its entire length is about 38 inches, but 
was orginally greater, as the point of the blade is missing, 
having apparently been broken off before the sword was 
buried. Despite the corrosion of the metal, there is evidence 
that the blade had been two-edged for a few inches near 
the point. When the relic came to view, Mr. Phipps broke 



Description of Sword 



243 




the blade, a short section of which was first ex- 
posed, believing it to be a root; and the blacksmith 
who was employed to repair the fracture pro- 
nounced the weapon to be composed of the best X 
razor steel, of a quality far superior to that used 
in the manufacture of swords at the present time. 
The hilt was covered with leather, bound with 
a copper wire, but the leather was so greatly de- 
cayed that it fell to pieces soon after its exposure 
to the air. The scabbard, which presumably was 
also of leather, had entirely disappeared with the 
exception of the metal hook by which it was 
suspended from the belt.' 

Upon the blade near the hilt the letters 
U. S.-L. D. could be discerned, and a discussion 
as to their significance at once arose among anti- 
quarians, some of whom held the meaning to be 
||United States, Light Dragoons," and others, 
"United States, Lee's Dragoons"; the latter be- 
lieving that the sword had belonged to a trooper 
in "Light-Horse Harry" Lee's Partisan Legion. 
The writer favors the first of these interpreta- 
tions. In February, 1777, the weapons of the 

Contmental army were directed by Congress to "mpVroSnp 
be properly marked for indentification, and it seems more 
probable that the same inscription was adopted for the 
swords of all the battalions and regiments of cavalry, rather 
than that a different device was permitted for Pulaski's, 

"The Continental Congress, by resolution of March ^ 177S ,A.,;. A 

mmmmmms 

—Public Papers of Governor George Clinton. II, Sjq. 



SWORD 
UNEARTHED 



244 History of Chatham 

Lee's and Armand's battalions and for each of the four 
regiments of Continental light dragoons in the army. 
Moreover, the supposition that the weapons were engraved 
with the initial letter of the commandng officer's name is 
open to the objection that a new device would be in order 
with every change of leader, by death, promotion or resig- 
nation, or by the consolidation of two or more separate 
commands. And the fact that the horses of Sheldon's 
ca\alry were branded on the hoofs A L D — American 
Light Dragoons' — is further evidence that the letters on the 
sword had a similar meaning. But aside from this, there 
is greater likelihood that the weapon belonged to one of 
Tallmadge's men than to a trooper of Lee's legion, because 
Tallmadge was in winter quarters here for upwards of six 
months, while Lee, though stationed at Chatham, and often 
passing through the place in the course of the war, did not, 
as far as we know, remain here so long. 

But the theory that the letters "L. D." stood for Lee's 
Dragoons found many advocates, one of whom was the 
editor of the Madison Eagle, who, on October 31st, pub- 
lished the following article: 

AN HISTORICAL RELIC. 

From time to time many relics are dug up in the neighborhood 
where stirring scenes were enacted during the struggle fur liberty, 
and on October 9, William Phipps and William Sayre while at 
work near Spring Brook in the neighborhood of Chatham, dug up a 
Cavalry^ sword, that from its incrustation by rust and dirt had evi- 
dently remained concealed from view for years; a liberal application 
of kerosene enabled the letters U. S.-L. D. to be discerned, and 
from the light of history it may be concluded that the weapon 
belonged to a trooper in "Light Horse Harry's" command. The 
battle of Springfield occurred June 23, 1780, and the bridge on the 
Vauxhall Road was guarded by Lee's horse, who after an obstinate 
resistance were driven back, several troopers being killed and 
wounded ; four of the latter were brought to Condit's Tavern, and 

' Public Papers of Governor George Clinton, HI, 90. 



TaLLMADGE's CoRRESPONnEN'CE 245 

died in the barn near by, and were buried in the direction of tlic Mill 
Dam;' it is probably to one of these nameless heroes, the sabre be- 
longed, and is now found long after his remains have mouldered 
away. 

Through the kindness of Mr. George B. V'anderpoel, on whose 
propert\- the sword was found, we are permitted to place it in our 
window where it will be exhibited for a short time. 

Among the papers of General Washington now pre- 
served in the Library of Congress is the correspondence of 
the commander-in-chief with Major Tallmadge during the 
War of Independence, and a part of this correspondence Is 
quoted helow. The letters which we have selected relate 
chiefly to the purchase of provisions, horses and equipment, 
and indicate the general condition of the cavalry while 
quartered at Chatham In the winter of 1778. 

MAJOR TALLMADGE TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham Febry 9th 1778. 
ALiy it please your Excellency 

The Regt. having arrived at a place which will most probably 
be our Quarters for some time I ha\e set down to report our situa- 
tion to Genl. Polaski, & having other matters to lay before your 
Excellency, I can at the same time inform that the few men &: horses 
which we have with us are in toIerabl>- good Qrs, & tho' the place 
IS but small, I trust we shall not want for forage or provisions during 
our stay. 

Lieut Colo. Blackden I conclude will provide Cloathing for the 
Regt., in N. England, Boots & Leather Breeches excepted, which 
I was directed to ingage. I am happ\- to inform that I ha\e already 

'.According to the official report of General Nathaniel Greene, who 
commanded at Springfield, Lee's loss amounted to I trooper killed and 
4 wounded.— Barhrr & Hoii-r's A'. J. Historical Colleclinns. iqs. The refer- 
ence m the MnJuon Eagle to Condit's tavern was taken from the writings 
c • "^c il'"'^' "'"' ascertained that four American soldiers wounded at 
bpnngheid were brought to this tavern, where thev d\ed.— Historical Maga- 
zine, Ser. i. IX. SS3- He does not state to what command thev belonged; 
they may or may not have been Lee's men. 



246 History of Chatham 

better than 100 pairs of leather Breeches in store, & the remaining 
Complement for the Regt. is ingaged, & will be ready for us shortly. 
With respect to Boots, by the assistance of Mr. Caldwell, 
D. Q. M. Genl. for this Departmt., 250 pairs are ingaged near this 
place, & tho' in every other place where we have made inquiry none 
could be ingaged under 24, 26 & 30 Dolls, pr pair, our whole Com- 
plement is ingaged & will shortly be compleated for 14 Dolls. — the 
money to be paid on the Delivery of the Boots. 

With respect to the Breeches I have made no particular agree- 
ment, but they are to be apprised by indififerent Judges, the Magis- 
trates &c &c. Those that I have on hand have been averaged at 16 
Dolls apiece — which is more reasonable than I expected to obtain 
them, being several Dolls less than the Clothier Genl. gave for 
Breeches of the same Quality at Lancaster & the back Counties several 
months ago. 

Much has been said about the augmentation of the Troops; if 
such a plan is determined on, could wish to know it as soon as possible 
that the recruiting business may be immediately undertaken. 

Your Excellency must be well assured that a number of horses 
are wanting for the Dragoon service. As Capt Sheldon is now in 
N England, where horses are perhaps cheaper than in any other part, 
any Directions in the above particular should be immediately at- 
tended to. 

I am confident that I need not remind your Excellency of the 
necessity of setting about the aforesaid business immediately as the 
Winter, which has already too far elapsed, will soon be over & we 
called into the field, with prospects of rendering our Country not 
that service, which might be expected from the Establishment. 

As much Depends on our having money to pay ofif our Con- 
tracts for the Regt., I am requested by Colo. Caldwell to desire your 
Excellency to enable me to pay off the aforementioned bills punc- 
tually; & should any further supplys of boots be needed by the 
Clothier Genl. as I think they will hardly be purchased so cheap 
in any other State, I doubt not but that they might be ingaged if 
application was soon made. 

I have just reed 149 horseman's Swords, taken with Genl. Bur- 
goyne, which are all that we may expect from that Qr. They are 
very strong & heavy having steel Scabbards. 




MAJOR HKXJAMIX TAI.I.MADtiE 
Fn.in a Pi-iu-il Sk<-tcli liy Jnlui Tiimiljull. 



Munitions Captured at Saratoga 247 

Hoping that your Excellency's Directions in the premises may 
be forwarded as speedily as possible to Genl. Polaski or myself 

I remain, with all respect, your Excellency's most obdt & very 
hble Servt, 

Benja Tallmadge 
Major Commdt 2d Regt L D 
Genl. Washington.' 

Major Tallmadge's mention of the swords taken with 
Burgoyne's army is worthy of note, as showing that some of 
the munitions of war captured at Saratoga were sent to 
Chatham for safe-keeping, while the date of the letter gives 
us the approximate time when the trophies arrived. It 
appears, however, from the writings of Dr. Joseph F. 
Tuttle, that most of the captured articles were stored in 
Succasunna. He states (Annals of Morris County, page 
54): 

An aged woman, Mrs. Elizabeth Doland, died at Mount Hope, 
Morris County, in 1852, more than ninety-one years old, who once 
told me that, when eleven years old, she was living at Walmsy's 
Tavern at Pompton when the trophies of Burgoyne's surrender were 
passing through, on their way to Morris County, where they were 
to be stored. She had been to a neighbor's house, and, on her return, 
found the house in a commotion. In the bar-room was a heap of 
curious brass instruments which belonged to a German Band, cap- 
tured with Burgoyne's army. She says that, during the three days 
the Band remained, she had music enough and was glad when it was 
gone. The artillery and stores were drawn by oxen; and Mrs. Do- 
land says that some of the cannon required three yokes. The train 
passed from Pompton to Morristown, through Montville, Troy and 
Hanover. It is an interesting fact that the Presbyterian Meeting 
House at Succasunna Plains, some twelve miles West of Morristown, 
was used as a place of storage for the muskets, cannon, and other 
articles taken at Saratoga. There is now living — 1854 — a gentleman, 
in Morristown, the Hon. Lewis Condict, who, when a child, saw 
these stores at that old church. The larger cannon were ranged and 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 21, 258. 



248 History of Chatham 

sheltered outside the building; and the entire church was filled with 
the captured munitions. On the road from Morristown to the Plains, 
just as you are descending the hill, was the house of a Mr. James 
"\'oung; the garret of which was filled with drums, band instruments, 
and other accutrements requiring shelter. Dr. Condict says he has 
often, when visiting at Mr. Young's house, amused himself with 
beating the drums there stored. And it may be surmised that the 
fact of these trophies of a British defeat being stored in Morris 
County, was one of the reasons why the enemy had such a desire to 
penetrate that region — a desire which was never gratified. 

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO MAJOR TALLMADGE. 

Head Quarters 20th Febv 1778. 
hir, 

I am glad to be informed by your Letter of the 9th Inst, that 
you are established in quarter, where you are likely to have means 
of putting your men and horses into good Condition ; As you have 
been so successful in contracting for boots and Leather Breeches, 
I would not have you confine your views in these articles, to the 
precise number that may be wanted by your Regiment ; but wish 
that you would extend them in such a manner as to be useful to the 
other Regiments. 

The Sums which may be wanted to fulfil your agreements 
must be drawn from the Quarter master General in whose hands a 
fund is established for defraying all expenses of this kind. 

It gives me pain that there should be any delay in the important 
business of providing Remounts, this matter among others is under 
the consideration of the Committee of Congress, and nothing can be 
done in it 'till their determination is known. 

I am (Sec 

Major Tallmadge 
Chatham.' 

MAJOR TALLMADGE TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

,, . , ^ T- 11 Chatham March 7th 1778. 

May It please Your Excellency 

Having a Dragoon just riding to Camp, I am indviced to trouble 

your Excellency with a line on matters respecting the Regt. 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B. V., pt. 1, 1+3. 



TaLLMAIXJE's CoRRESPOXnKNTK 249 

In my last I noted that Colo Sheldon & Lt Colo Blackden were 
both absent in X. England. Am now to inform that Lt. Colo. Black- 
den has procured Coats (^' Vests for the Regt. Colo. Sheldon has 
been for some time e.xpecting orders to purchasing Horses for the 
Regt. Of this I wrote largely in my last letter to your Excellency, 
& being again called on by some Officers of the Regt. who are absent 
on furlough & could assist much in the aforesd. Dut\', am most press- 
ingly to request Directions in this particular. Genl. Polaski has sent 
orders for recruiting men, but no money has been forwarded for this 
purpose. I have sent out several nonCommissd Officers on this 
service Sc furnished them with money, but have it not in my power to 
advance what ma}- be needed in this business. B\- a letter just reed, 
from Capt Belden, of our Regt. now in Connecticut, am informed 
that Recruits & Horses might be engaged, the former on the old 
terms, & the latter on reasonable Conditions, if money could but be 
sent on, or an order forwarded to Colo. Sheldon on the Loan Office in 
that State. 

In my last I made mention of the Boots (S: leather Breeches 
engaged for the Regt. The former are engaged at 14 Dols pr. pair, 
which are to be of good substantial work <^- approved of by two 
indififerent Persons. This is on all hands agreed to be very reasonable. 

Colo. Sheldon engaged one Mr Estey of this State to make 140 
pair of leather Breeches, of good quality, for the Regt. & promised 
him for sd. Breeches the price current at the time of making the Con- 
tract. Mr. Estey accordingly engaged Stock & Workmen to fulfil the 
engagement at the price then current also. Some time after, this State 
regulated the prices of the necessaries of life &c (i'c, and tho' nothing 
in particular is mentioned about the articles in question, still as the 
act is in general terms they are doubtless included. But in the same 
act a particular exception is made, declaring that the intention is not 
to alter or affect any bargain made previous to the existence of sd, 
act. Your Excellency will please to forgive my being lengthy on 
this Subject, as it most interestingly concerns Mr. Estey as well as 
the Regt. The price current, & for which hundreds of pairs were 
sold at the time the abovementioned Contract was made, was 30 
Dols. & rising. Mr. Estey engaged to'deliver Breeches, of firm, sub- 
stantial leather, & approved Work, for 26^:^, Dols. pr. pair, or there- 
abouts. I have examined the Breeches. & find that he has fulfilled 



250 History of Chatham 

his engagement in the amplest manner, having spared no pams to 
procure the best leather & giving them good strong, & sufficiently 
neat work. In fine if those Breeches of which I made mention in 
my last as apprized by the Magistrates at 16 Dols. pr. Pair, were 
worth ten, I can with the greatest sincerity declare that I think these 
are worth 30. The Breeches which we have heretofore drawn have 
been of so poor a nature, that they have not indured, the most of 
them, more than 4 months, & I am confident those made by Mr. 
Estey will indure constant service for a Year. 

The reason why I have been so lengthy on this Subject is this. 
Some Gentlemen have taken much pains to make Mr Estey uneasy 
with his Contract & present situation, (as he is but a young Trades- 
man, & has perhaps expended more than he is worth to oblige the 
Regt.) insinuating that we intend to take the Breeches at our own 
price, which if much short of the 'forementioned, would make him 
a great looser. In fine Mr. Estey has completely fulfilled his En- 
gagemt. & as the honour of the field Officers of this Regt is pledged, 
on the other hand, that he should be dealt with on honorable & 
equitable terms, am most humbly to ask your Excellency's Directions 
how to proceed. If the money can be forwarded, or if I may but be 
authorized to promise him the money on the aforementioned terms, 
the Breeches are ready to be delivd. Less than this I think Colo. 
Sheldon, who was empowered to get Cloathing for his Regt. as cheap 
as he could, cannot do, & I am confident as a Servt. of the Publick, 
I think the Bargain highly advantageous, & what ought to be ful- 
filled. 

I am bound to inform that all our supplies come with great 
difficulty & reluctance from the People, merely for want of money 
to pay off publick Arrearages. With respect to Cloathing in par- 
ticular the money must be deposited on the Rect. of the articles. If 
we can be able to do this, I trust the Regt can be tolerably cloathed ; 
if not, I know not what other steps to take. 

I have one thing more to mention & I will trouble your Ex- 
cellency no further. We have some Dragoons whose Famelies & 
Affairs suffer much by reason of their absence. Wish to know whether 
such men may be dismissed the Service, after procuring a Substitute 
approved of by the Commanding Officer. 



Tallmadge's Correspondence 251 

With much respect, I am your Excellency's most obt & very 
hble. Servt. 

Benja. Tallmdge 
Major Commdt 2d Regt L. Dr. 
Genl Washington." 

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO MAJOR TALLMADGE. 

Head Quarters 10th March 1778 
Sir 

Annexed is a Copy of my last Letter to you, which from the 
tenor of yours of the 7th Inst. I am inclined to think you never 
received, it went by the return of the Dragoon who brought yours 
of the 9th. Feby. 

The Legislature of N. Jersey certainly never intended that the 
Law regulating the prices of necessaries should have a retrospective 
view, and affect any anterior Contracts. You ought therefore to 
settle with Mr Estey according to the agreement which Col. Shel- 
don made with him. 

As the Congress has called upon those States in which there is 
the best breed of Horses to supply the Cavalry I cannot take it upon 
me to put money into Col. Sheldon's hands for purchasing Remounts 
for his Regiment in particular, which will be provided for among the 
rest-but if he will engage some good horses at a reasonable price 
upon Credit, I will undertake that they shall be paid for hereafter 
I have no doubt that he will be able to enlist a number of men for 
the established continental bounty, as the Service of the Cavalry is 
sought by many who are unwilling to enter into the Infantry 

The debts which accrue from your Contracts must as I said 
before be paid off from the Fund which is established for that purpose 
in the hands of the Quarter M. General. 

Major Tallmadge.= 

The New Jersey Gazette of April 23, 1778, contains 
this advertisement relating to the steps then being taken by 
the btate to obtain remounts for the cavalry: 

■Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 22, 121 
Washington Papers in the Library of Congress. B.V., pt. 1, 267. 



252 History of Chatham 

His Excellency the Governor desires the gentlemen employed by 
this state to purchase horses for the service to send them as soon as 
purchased to such of the following places as ma\- be most convenient, 
with reference to those parts of the state in which they are bought, 
taking receipts for the same, with the proper descriptions, to-ii'it : to 
Capt. Harrison, at Pennington; to Col. Sheldon, at Chatham; to 
Major Clough, at Trenton; or to Lieut-Col. White, at Brunswick, 
or to the commanding officers at those places. 

Referring to the purchase of these horses, Colonel 
Stephen Moylan, who commanded the four regiments of 
Continental cavalry then in New Jersey, wrote to Washing- 
ton from Trenton on May 5th: 

I have seen but five horses of those purchased by the State. They 
were sent to Major Clough, who rejected them as unfit for the ser- 
vice. I am told there are some tolerable good ones delivered to the 
regiments at Chatham, Brunswick and Pennington; I propose visit- 
ing them this week, and expect from the late accounts I have from 
each, to make a more favorable report of them than in my last to 
your Excellency.^ 

MAJOR TALLMADGE TO GEN^ERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham May 4th, 1778. 
May it please Your Excellency 

As Colo Sheldon is about riding for Head Quarters to Day I 
think it my duty to inform your Excellency of the State of that 
Part of our Regt. which is on the other side the North River, & 
of which I have had the more immediate Charge for these four Weeks 
. past. Your Excellency- need not be apprized that Yid of the Regt was 
detached from us & did duty in other Departments thro' the last 
Campaign, to regulate & superintend which has been my duty for 
the time beforementioned. 

I am to inform that the Troop Commanded by Capt Bull, which 
served in the middle Departmt. the last Year, is in good Qrs & in 
tolerable good Condition. Tho' much worn down with hard service, 

"American Catholic Historical Researches, New Series, V, 164. 



TALLMAnOF.'s CoRRKSPONnRNCF. 2 153 

I must in justice to the Officers & Men declare, that with dih"gence 
& close attention their Horses are much recruited. 

The Troops Commanded by Capt Seymour, which served in the 
Northern Army, was so exceedingly reduced, «& has been so short a 
time in Qrs, that their Condition is not so promising. 

With respect to arms botli Troops are much in want (Swords 
excepted of which I believe they have nearh' a supply). The Sadlery 
work has been rectified & repaired as much as possible. I should be 
wanting in my Duty should I omit to mention that our Supplies of 
every kind have been much retarded for want of Money. Capt Sey- 
mour's Troop has been suppl} 'd wholly on Credit, & in a Countn,' 
where by means of the Regulating Laws necessaries are hard to be 
obtained even for money, it is but reasonable to suppose that a 
distant, & even (with some) a doubtful Paymt. will be but a poor 
inducemt. to part with those Commodities to the Publick for which 
they can have the ready Cash in any other Market. 

I am extremely unhappy to find by a letter lately reed, from 
Your Excellency by. Colo. Sheldon that the Honour of the Officers 
as well as the Dignit\- of the Regt. are so very low in your Excel- 
lency's opinion. I formerly had the Vanity to think that we were 
Considered in a different light. For me to apologize & answer to 
the Charges thereincontained, is needless, since the Colo, has wrote 
so largely on the Subject. But if being Commy. of Forage, Purchaser 
of Boots Cloathing &c for the Men, Superintendant to the Armourers 
& Sadlers Employments iS:c &c, entitles the Man \\ho acts in these 
several Capacities to the Character of being indolent & inattentive 
to duty, I would acquiesce in the Charge. I can add to this that never 
since I have been a Member of the Continental Army, have I asked 
for, or enjo)ed the benefit of a furlough to Visit my Friends. I wish 
not to enlarge on so disagreeable a subject, but with as much re- 
luctance as I should quit a service which from principle I wish to 
support, & a Genl. whose Commands it has been my highest ambition 
to obey, whenever m.\- Conduct shall be reprehensible by the latter, 
or of no avail to the advancemt. of the former, Honour as well as 
Inclination would urge me to impose on the Publick no longer. Tho 
not particularly pointed at in your letter, my Honour, as well as the 
Honour & Services of all my Brother Officers seem to have been 
so depreciated in your Excellency's opinion that unless a Change of 



254 History of Chatham 

Sentiments is experienced, I am well convinced we can serve with 
but little Cr[edit] & no satisfaction hereafter. 

With much Respect I am, Your Excellency's most obdt Hble. 

Servt. Benja Tallmadge 

Major 2d Regt L. D. 
Genl Washington.* 

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO MAJOR TALLMADGE. 

Valley forge 13 May 1778. 
Sir 

I received your favor of the 4th Instant by Colo Sheldon. 

I do not censure the conduct of Officers or hurt their feelings 
in the smallest degree thro choice. When I do it, I always regret 
the occasion, which compelled me to the measure. How far the 
conduct of the generality, or of Individual Officers in your Corps 
may have been reprehensible and deserving the reproof and charges 
contained in my Letter, I cannot determine upon my own knowledge. 
I shall be happy if they were without foundation ; However, my in- 
formation was such that I could not disbelieve the facts. It came 
thro various channels, and it appeared that the Horses had been 
neglected and greatly harassed. Colo Moylan in his general report 
of the state of the Cavalry informed me "That the second Regiment 
had been most cruelly dealt with. Of 54 Horses which he had 
seen paraded, that he did not think Ten could be selected fit to go 
on any duty. That they had been really starved during the Winter 
and the blame thrown from the Officers on Mr. Caldwell, who 
acted as a Commissary of forage; but that the true reason of their 
being in such condition, according to his believe, was that few or 
none of the Officers had been with the Regiment." If this was the 
case; — If the Horses were neglected thro their absence or not at- 
tended to as well as circumstances would admit, the Officers certainly 
are reproacheable for not having done that duty they owed the public. 
I am Sir Your Most Obedt Servt. 

Go. Washington. 
Major Tallmadge of 

Sheldon's Dragoons.' 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 23, 72. 
'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B.V., pt. 2, 203. 



Departure of the Cavaerv 255 

The order of the commander-in-chief removing the 
cavalry from Chatham was couched in the following terms: 

Head Quarters Valley Forge 
29th May 1778. 
Sir, 

An extent of Country between Gen. Gates and the enemy make 
it necessary to employ horse in that quarter. I therefore desire you 
may proceed immediately to the North River and put yourself under 
the command of Genl Gates with all of your cavalry that are in 
a condition to march. With such as remain you will leave proper 
officers. 

I am &c. 

Go. W. 
Col Sheldon 

Chatham.' 

From a letter of Lewis Pintard, an extract of which is 
given below, we learn that the cavalry left Chatham on the 
4th of June. The letter is addressed to Colonel Samuel B. 
Webb, a member of a prominent family of Connecticut, and 
one of Washington's aides de camp, and refers to his brother 
John, who was a captain in Sheldon's regiment. The letter 
is now in the library of the Connecticut Historical Society. 
Its date, 1777, is clearly an error, as it alludes to events 
which occurred in the summer of 1778. 

New York, 6th June, 1777. 
Dear Sir. 

On my return Home Saturday last I received a letter from Mr. 
Boudinot, desiring me to meet him in the Jerseys. 

I set out Monday in the storm, and on my way to his house, at a 
little village called Chatham, about ten miles from Morristown, I 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B.V., pt. 2, 353. Tall- 
madge wrote to Gates on June 1 that he would start from Chatham 
as soon as he could remount all his men; expressing pleasure at "the 
agreeable prospect of seeing the Regt. once together, which has not hap- 
pened smce we have been raised." — Johnston's Tallmadye's Memoirs, I2g. 



256 History of Chatham 

had the pleasure to see and dine with your younger brother, Captain 
of the Light Horse, who was very well, and in high spirits ; glad to 
hear so straight from you. He set out Thursday last with his troop 
of horse and many others to join General Gates at Fishkills.' 



Two letters are given below which were written at 
Chatham in April, 1778, by Hon. William Livingston, the 
first governor of the State under the republic. The Council 
of Safety of New Jersey, of which the chief executive was 
ex-officio a member, met in Morristown during the last days 
of April and the first week of May in that year," and this 
accounts for Livingston's presence in the vicinity. He was 
a staunch and ardent patriot whose activities in the Amer- 
ican cause led the enemy to offer a reward for his capture; 
and repeated attempts to take him prisoner were made by 
British troops and bands of tories. Hence he was usually 
attended by a detachment of soldiers, and seldom spent two 
successive nights in the same building. It happened more 
than once that the tories made a descent upon the house 
where he had passed the previous night, only to find that he 
had eluded them." It was doubtless owing to these con- 
ditions that the governor came to Chatham at the period of 
which we write, and probably lodged at times in various 
other villages in the neighborhood, instead of remaining in 
Morristown during the entire session of the Council of 
Safety. 

Upon the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, and the 
ratification of a treaty of alliance between France and the 
American republic, the British ministry realized the difficul- 
ties of the task they had undertaken, and began to doubt 
the possibility of subjugating the colonies; hence commis- 

'Webb's Samuel B. Webb, 265. 

"Minutes of the Council, V, 268, in library of the New Jersey Historical 
Society. 

"J. F. Tuttle's Annals of Morris County, 48. 




HON'. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON 
(Courtesy of Leslie's Monthly.) 



Letter of Governor Livingston 257 

sioners were sent to offer the Americans all they had asked 
if they would reassume their loyalty to the crown. This 
conciliatory proposal, which would have been eagerly ac- 
cepted at the commencement of the war, now came too late, 
and was rejected by the Continental Congress. The follow- 
ing letters of Governor Livingston illustrate the opinion 
generally held by the patriots regarding these overtures. 
The first is addressed to Henry Laurens, the President of 
Congress; and its friendly and informal tone, despite the 
fact that the two gentlemen were not personally acquainted, 
is attributed by Livingston's leading biographer to their 
similarity of views upon many points of public interest, and 
their equal devotion to the cause of independence. 

Chatham, 27th. April, 1778. 
To Henr)' Laurens, Pres't etc. 
Dear Sir, 

I am under great obligations to you for your long and agreeable 
letter of the 19th. instant, which I received yesterday, and considering 
my prompt pay, such as it is, I know you will make an abatement 
in the price, that is to say, in the length of my answer. 

I really pity you amid the multiplicity of business in which you 
are immersed, but if it should be our good fortune to drive the devils 
out of the country this summer, as I doubt not we shall, if we exert 
our endeavors in an humble reliance on the Lord of Hosts, instead 

of suffering ourselves to be gulled by the of Lord North, it will 

be a very pleasing reflection to us during the remainder of our lives, 
that we have been instrumental in delivering one of the finest coun- 
tries upon the globe from the tyranny which would have rendered it 
like Babylon an habitation of owls and of dragons. You have my 
hearty thanks for the loan of the London Evening Post, which 1 re- 
turn you according to request. The extraordinary freedom which 
these writers take in opposing the measure of the ministry, is a happy 
symptom of the national discontent. North is certainly at his wits' 
end, and as Huldibras says: 

"He that was great as Julius Caesar, 
Is now reduced like Nebuchadnezzar." 



258 History of Chatham 

I hope we shall not be such blockheads as to accede to ridiculous 
terms, when we have so fair a prospect of obtaining peace upon almost 
any terms; tho' my good friends in New York have faithfully 
promised to cut my throat for writing, which they seem to resent 
more than fighting. I have already begun to sound the alarm in our 
gazette, in a variety of short letters, as tho' everybody execrated the 
proposals of Britain. Peace I most earnestly wish for, but for 
Heaven's sake let us have no badge of dependence upon that cruel 
nation, which so lately devoted us to destruction, and is so precipitately 
hastening her own. 

If whatever is is right, a fortiori, whatever is by act of Congress 
must unquestionably be right. But in my private judgment, I should 
be totally against the plan of allowing the officers half -pay after the 
war. It is a very pernicious precedent in republican States; will 
load us with an immense debt, and render the pensioners themselves 
in a great measure useless to their country. If they must have a com- 
pensation, I think they had better have a sum certain to enable them 
to enter into business, and become serviceable to the community. 

I am, &c. 

WiL Livingston.^ 

LIVINGSTON TO WASHINGTON. 

Chatham, 27th. April, 1778. 
Dear Sir, 

I had the honour yesterday of your Excellency's favours of the 
15th. and 22d. April. 

I am obliged to your Excellency for the enclosures in your favour 
of the 22d. of April. I entertain exactly the same sentiments with 
you concerning the design and tendency of the bill and instructions — 
but I hope in this they will be (as in every thing else they have been) 
disappointed by that Providence which appears evidently to confound 
all their devices. I should have been very happy to have received 
Lord North's speech only two days sooner, to have contributed my 
mite towards some observations upon it, to be inserted in the West 
New Jersey Gazette ; but it coming too late for that purpose, I must 

' Sedgwick's Livingston, 279. 



Letter of Governor Livingston 259 

defer it to the succeeding week ; though I could wish it was under- 
taken by an abler hand, and one of greater leisure. To provide, 
however, some antidote to prevent meanwhile the operation of his 
lordship's poison, I have sent Collins^ a number of letters, as if by 
different hands, not even excluding the tribe of petticoats', all cal- 
culated to caution America against isiduous acts of enemies. This 
mode of rendering a measure unpopular, I have frequently experi- 
enced ,n my political days to be of surprising efficacy, as the common 
people collect from it that everybody is against it, and for that 
reason those who are really for it grow discouraged, from magnifying 
m their own miagination the strength of their adversaries beyond its 
true amount. 

I have the honour to be, With the highest esteem. Dear Sir, &c. 

WiL Livingston. = 

I Isaac Collins, the editor of the AV^. Jersey Gazette. 
Sedgwick's Livingston, 281. 




CHAPTER XI 

Shepard Kollock and the Nnv Jersey Journiil. 

THE most noteworthy event occurring in Chatham 
during the year 1779 was the estabhshment in this 
village of the New Jersey Journal — a newspaper which con- 
tributed very materially to the successful outcome of the 
Revolutionary War. 

In colonial and Revolutionary days newspapers 
were scarce. None was regularly published in New 
Jersey until December, 1777, when Isaac Collins founded 
the New Jersey Gazette — issued' at first in Burling- 
ton and later in Trenton — which circulated chiefly in the 
southern parts of the State. The inhabitants of the northern 
and northeastern portions, while they read the Gazette to 
some extent, depended more generally upon the newspapers 
of New York, which, after the occupation of that city by the 
British, necessarily supported the home government, and 
tried to discourage the cause of American Independence. 

In the winter of 1778-9 someone conceived the idea 
that If a newspaper strongly In sympathy with the patriot 
cause were published and circulated In northern New Jersey, 
it would serve a most useful purpose in encouraging the 
people, and counteracting the pernicious influence of the tory 
press of New York. The New Jersey Gazette, owing to the 
fact that Its editor was a Quaker, was not particularly belli- 
cose, and there was need for a patriotic newspaper which 
should be more zealous and aggressive. Some historians 
attribute the plan to General Henry Knox of the Continental 
artillery, while others ascribe it to Alexander Hamilton. 
The project was duly carried into effect, the publication being 



Kollock's Militarv C.\rp:er 261 

mtrusted to a young officer of artillery named Shepard 
Kollock, who was a printer by trade. 

This distinguished patriot was born in Lewes, Dela- 
ware ui September, .750, the son of Shepard and Mary 
(Goddard) Kollock. He learned the art of printing in the 
office of h,s uncle, William Goddard, editor of the Penmvl- 
v^nuaChranule, in Philadelphia. In 1770, owing to failing 
health, he went to the island of St. Croix, West Indies 
where he found employment in a newspaper office, and where 
he made the acquaintance of Alexander Hamilton, then a 
boy of fourteen, who had attracted attention by writing a 
vmd and mteresting description of a West Indian hurricane 
vvh.ch was prmted in Kollock's paper. Soon after the out- 
break of the Revolution the young journahst returned to his 
nat.ve country, filled with a desire to participate in the 
struggle for freedom, and in 1776 became a lieutenant in a 
company of New York artillery of which the captain was 
Alexander Hamilton, his former friend of St. Croix On 
January i, ,777, he was commissioned first lieutenant under 
Captam Thomas Theodore Bliss in Colonel John Lamb's 
(the Second) regiment of Continental artillery, and served 
as brevet captam. He resigned his commission January . 
1779. J Oi 

Continental Officers 336 Smker'^Offi/' T^ ," ' "'^'""-^^l Register of 
Revolution, 90. ' ^'"^M^" ^ Officers and Men of New Jersey in the 

of tJo 're"idTnts™ol Cha'tha.n^^ The' " ''"^«^'' ',^','' ^^^'^'^ '^e nances 
Carter, who were matros.es i"' Captan 7nhn' n'''!" '^'^^'^>- ^"'' '^'^Ph-' 
AV-.C- York. II, sjg. ' '<""'"t'on ,n Office of the Secretary of State of 

iins,TSLr°'ortit?;^:ryr't:" ■;;'^^ ^r? '"' '^""-^ ^y i-- coi. 

explained bv the fac^Jhat'th? wrt^r^'was'^a^Quafe?'" "' '"' '"'''"''' '' 

-ction, and he ^^ei^rt^h^^^ari^ ti:^'Xn::^cr^^-^ ^ 



262 History of Chatham 

Shepard Kollock was united in marriage with Susannah, 
daughter of Isaac and Hannah Arnett, of Elizabeth, 
N. J., and he probably made that place his home as far 
as his military activities would permit. When the ap- 
proach of the enemy imperiled the safety of the city, the 
Arnett and Kollock families removed to New Providence; 
consequently the captain was not a stranger in this vicinity 
when he founded the New Jersey Journal at Chatham/ 

Whether the plan of publishing this newspaper was 
evolved by Knox or by Hamilton, there can be little doubt 
that it was the latter who advised the selection of Shepard 
Kollock to carry out the undertaking. The theory has been 
advanced that Kollock wearied of the hardships of army 
life, and resumed his former occupation for pecuniary profit; 
but this is extremely doubtful, for the success of the under- 
taking was problematical, and such a venture could hardly 

I recommend him to thy particular notice. If thou canst serve him, the obli- 
gation will be as gratefully acknowledged as tho' it was immediately con- 
ferred upon. 

Thy very respectful friend, 

Isaac Colins. 
P. S. — This is the first time, perhaps, that ever a person of my Pro- 
fession recommended a man for such an office. But such is the idea I have 
of Public Justice and Self-Defense. 

I. C. 
To John Pope, merch't, Mansfield. 

— Penna, Magazine nf History, Xl'UI, 260. 

' Hatfield's Elizabeth, 607. Isaac Arnett seems to have kept a store 
at New Providence in the winter of 1779-80. — The Ncv: Jersey Journal, 
Nos. 44, SI. 

Children of Shepard and Susannah Kollock: 

Henrietta, m., Feb. 5, 1805, Rev. John McDowell, D.D., of Elizabeth, N. J. 

Henry. Presbyterian clergyman, b. New Providence, N. J., Dec. 14, 
1778; d. Savannah, Ga., Dec. 29, 1819. m., Jun. 1, 1804, Mahctable, widow 
of Alexander Campbell of Richmond, Va., and daughtei of William Hylton 
of Jamaica, W. I. 

Shepard Kosciusko, Presbyterian Clergyman, b. Elizabeth, N. J., Jun. 
25, 1795, d. Philadelphia, Pa., Apr. 7, 1865.,' m. Sarah H . 

Mary, m. Mr. Nash. 

Susan Davis, m. Mr. Witherspoon. 

Jane, m. Rev. William Anderson McDowell, D.D., of Morristown, N. J. 

Lydia, m. Mr. Holdrick. 

Isaac Arnett. 

— Seller's Kollock Genealogy, 28 ; Kollock's Memoir of Henry Kollock; 
Hatfield's Elizabeth, 667. 




SHEPARD KOLLOCK 

From a Biographical Sketch by his Granddaughter. Mary Kollock 
in 1 he Spirit of 7ti, January, IS9S. 



The Journal Established 263 

be expected to pay in that time of general depression. It 
is much more liicely that he was directed by his superiors to 
publish the paper, and regarded the work as a military duty. 
Quoting from the writings of the late William Nelson: 

That it (the Journal) was started as a "war measure" with 
official backing, further appears from sundry receipts (the original 
are in my collection) of the Army Commissary at Morristown during 
1780, showing that on February 2, he furnished Kollock with "Nine 
Hundred Wt of old Tent Unfitt for service;" also the same day 
"one Ream letter Paper three Ream Common Paper." A week later 
"one Ream of Common Paper" was furnished for the use of "Shepard' 
Kollock Printer at Chatham;" and three days later "Fourteen quire 
common & four quire large Post Paper" receipted for by Shelly 
Arnett, who was an apprentice and a few \ears later a partner of 
Kollock. On March 29 "One ream Common paper" was furnished 
to Kollock "for printing returns." On May 21, he was given "Eight 
Hundred Three Quarters & Twelve pound old Tent Cloath," pre- 
sumably to be manufactured into paper. On June 4, the Commissary 
delivered for his use "Two Bundles Old Tent Rags wt Two Hun- 
dred One Quarter Also Six Ream Paper for Printing returns for 
Adjt Genl. Also One Other Bagg wt Two Hundred One Quarter 
old tent Rags." The furnishing of a newspaper printer with sup- 
plies from the very scanty army stores is, I think, rather a unique 
incident of the Revolution.^ 

The New Jersey Journal first appeared on February 
[6, 1779, and was continued until the close of the Revolu- 
tion. It was a weekly paper, issued every Tuesday until 
January 25, 1780, and on Wednesdays thereafter. Its 
publication ceased in the autumn of 1783, but the exact date 
of its discontinuance is not known, for many numbers of the 
paper have been lost, and we cannot be certain that the latest 
issue now extant was the last one printed. Toward the 
close of the war Kollock announced his intention of moving 

'Nelson's New Jersey Printers of the 18th. Century, 19. 



264 History of Chatham 

from Chatham to New York as soon as the departure of 
the enemy would permit. The city was evacuated by the 
British on November 25, 1783, and it is beUeved that the 
pubhcation of the New Jersey Journal ceased at that time. 

In addition to its news columns, the Journal contained 
essays, communications, poems, etc., written in a tone 
heartily in sympathy with the cause of freedom, and it 
undoubtedly exercised a most potent influence. The British 
recognized its power and effect, and often threatened 
vengeance against its proprietor: but never succeeded in 
penetrating this region. 

Captain Kollock doubtless would have preferred to 
publish his paper in Elizabeth, but this was prevented by the 
frequency with which that city was raided by the enemy. 
Why Chatham was selected as the seat of publication, in- 
stead of the more populous and important village of Mor- 
ristown, is a matter of conjecture. Possibly the editor 
thought that Chatham, being nearer the enemy's lines, 
afforded better facilities for gathering news, or that the 
moral effect of the Journal would be strengthened by the 
fact that it was printed as close to the British outposts as 
was consistent with safety. The ease with which the enemy 
reached Springfield in 1776 and 1780 shows that Chatham 
was as near the danger zone as he could safely approach. 

The patriot printer moved his establishment two or 
three times during his stay in Chatham, but the scene of his 
labors cannot be accurately fixed. The paper itself does not 
state the exact location of the printing office at any time, nor 
does it refer to removals, except upon the occasion of the 
battle of Springfield, which occurred June 23, 1780. The 
people of Chatham were greatly terrified by the intelligence 
that a large and powerful British force was approaching, 
and, fearing that the enemy's advance could not be checked, 
many of them sought safety in flight. During the week of 



Location of the Printing Office 265 

the battle the Jonrmil failed to appear, and in the next issue 
the omission was explained by the fact that the printing 
office had been removed in the late alarm. This statement 
however, may not indicate a change of location: it may 
simply mean that the editor left Chatham in company with 
many of his neighbors, taking his printing outfit with him • 
and that upon his return, when the danger was past, he re- 
sumed business at the old stand. 

We are able to determine approximately the various 
locations where the paper was published by the discovery 
■ n after years, of broken and worn-out type; but we are 
obliged to rely upon tradition, or the probabilities of the 
case, to arrive at the order in which the several quarters 
were successively occupied. Samuel Condit. the last pro- 
prietor of the tavern which stood near Mrs. Mary C Allen's 
present home, on the north side of the turnpike 'east of the 
river, and was kept during the Revolution by Timothy Day 
used to say that he had often found type in the garden on 
the west side of the hotel : from which he argued that the 
Jonmal had been printed in one of the west rooms of the 
house, and that the discarded type had been thrown from 
the windows.- But although it is very likely that Captain 
Kollock occupied a room in the tavern, it is not an absolute 
certainty: for a building which in later years was a store 
standing at the opposite end of the garden, may have been 
used as the printing office. The type found by Mr. Condit 
might have been thrown from the windows of either house. 
Still, It is probable that the printing office was in the 
tavern, and that this was the first home of the Nezv Icr^cv 
Journal. That Captain Kollock, upon his arrival at Chat- 
ham, should first secure the necessary accommodations in 
a public house, while seeking more suitable and permanent 
quarters elsewhere, is much more likely than that he resorted 

son "7^;""""' M^g='-ne, Ser. 2, IX, 330; Turtle's Bot.le Hill and Madi- 



266 History of Chatham 

to the hotel at a subsequent date. Moreover, the tavern's 
location, standing as it did near the mouth of the road to 
New Providence, would add to its convenience, if we assume, 
which is by no means improbable, that KoUock continued 
to live in New Providence for a short time after founding 
his paper, before he and his family moved to Chatham. 

At another period, says tradition, the Journal was 
housed in a building which stood upon the property now 
owned by George M. Decker, on the northerly side of Main 
Street between the river and the mill-race,^ which, upon its 
demolition, was found to contain scattered type beneath the 
floors, the type apparently having been lost by dropping 
through the crevices between the boards. 

It further appears that the paper was published for a 
time in a house which stood upon the land owned until 
recently by the Chatham Presbyterian church, on the north 
side of Main Street, about thirty rods west of the Passaic. 
In later years this building was occupied as a general store 
by William R. McDougall and Mahlon Minton. It was 
torn down in i 832 when a church was built upon its site, and 
Mr. McDougall used to say that type was then found beneath 
the floors." Certain advertisements which appeared in the 
Journal in April, August and December, 1780, describe the 
location of the printing office as "near the liberty pole," and 
from information derived from various sources it is pos- 
sible to locate the Revolutionary liberty pole on or near the 
land now owned by Clark C. Cyphers, which adjoins the 
above property on the east. We may therefore assume 
that during 1780, and perhaps the following year, the paper 
was printed in the building referred to above. 

The home of the Journal was changed for the last time 
in 1782. In April of that year the editor purchased from 
Rev. Ebenezer Bradford, pastor of the Presbyterian church 

'Lewis Publishing Company's Morris County, I, 289. 
'William P. Tuttle in The Madison Eagle, March 12, 1897. 



Description of tiik Jours'.il 267 

at Bottle Hill (Madison), a small schoolhouse which the 
latter had erected during the earlier years of the Revolution 
and m which he taught a classical school. It was built where 
the former passenger station of the Lackawanna Railroad 
m Mad.son used to stand.' Captain Kollock moved it to 
Chatham, and placed it upon or near the site of Mrs. George 
T. Parrot's present residence, on the south side of Main 
Street opposite Mr. Cyphers' property. This building he 
used as a printing office and general store during the re- 
mainder of his stay in Chatham, and it was probably his 
residence. It was destroyed by fire in 1870, at which time 
IS was occupied as a bakery by George Linabery. 

"The Chatham paper," as it was familiarly called by 
both Americans and British, was printed upon a sheet 
measuring about 15 by 19 inches, folded to make four pages, 
each of which was divided into three columns 3% inches 
wide, but without column rules. The following imprint ex- 
tends across the bottom of the fourth page: "CH^TH'^M 
Printed by SHEPARD KOLLOCK, by whom essays, ^arti- 
cles of intelligence, advertisements, &c., are thankfully re- 
ceived and carefully inserted. Subscriptions taken at Vg 
per quarter." 

_ Although many numbers of the Jounuil are still in 
existence, there is no complete file covering the entire period 
^ of Its publication. A few bound volumes of the paper are 
preserved by antiquarians and antiquarian societies, of which 
the collection owned by the New York Historical Society is 
said to be the largest and most complete ; but in each of these 
volumes several numbers are wanting. 

From the fact that the editor frequently advertised for 
rags, and on one occasion for a boy to learn the art of 
paper making, we infer that the paper he used was manu- 
factured in Chatham. Compared with modern newspapers, 

'Tuttle's Bottle Hill and Madison, 78; William P, Tutile in r/,r 1/W, 
son Eagle, March 12, 1897. i u.nc in i ne Madi- 



268 History of Chatham 

the appearance of the Journal is crude and unattractive, with 
its coarse, rough paper, its blurred print, and its irregular 
lines; yet we cannot doubt that its subscribers regarded it as 
the perfection of journalistic achievement, it being fully 
equal, in respect to literary composition, presswork, and 
quality of paper, to the contemporary newspapers of New 
York, Boston and Philadelphia. 

The subscription price per quarter was fixed at "three 
shillings in produce or the value thereof in money" ; the 
value, in April, 1780, being twenty-five dollars in paper or 
five shillings in specie. In 1781 the price was "half a dollar 
in specie or the value thereof in produce" ; and this, it was 
explained, meant "half a dollar hard money, and not half a 
state dollar, as some have mistakenly supposed." The pub- 
lication could hardly have been a financial success, judging 
by the printer's frequent appeals to delinquent subscribers. 
He seems to have had the same difficulty in collecting sub- 
scriptions that the editors of rural newspapers experience 
at the present day, and at times to have almost despaired of 
continuing the business. In the issue of September 6, 1780, 
he writes : 

The last number of this paper terminates the second quarter of 
the current year. The Editor presumes his subscribers must be sen- 
sible of the great expence he is at in publishing a news-paper at this 
time of general difficulty, and the necessity there is for punctual pay- 
ments — He is therefore surprised, that though he has so often re- 
quested payment of those in arrears, so little notice has been taken 
of it ; many of whom have not yet paid off their last year's subscrip- 
tion, which, by the depreciation of the money, if now paid, is of so 
small value that it is hardly worth receiving. — Those subscribers in 
the vicinage of Chatham, the Printer expects will pay him in prod- 
uce at the old rate ; those at a distance, who pay cash, he hopes, in 
future, will be punctual in their payments quarterly. 

Again, on August 15, 1781, he writes as follows: 



Delinquent Subscribers 269 

This day's paper finishing the second quarter of the current year, 
the Editor returns his warmest acknowledgments to those gentlemen 
who have paid him with the same cheerfulness that they became 
subscribers; but at the same time, cannot help regretting that there 
are so few of this class of men on his list; which occasions so many 
embarrassments and difficulties that, at the expiration of the present 
quarter (unless greater attention is paid to supplying him with the 
needful) the publication of the Nczu Jersey Journal will be suspend- 
ed, if not totally dropped. It is hoped those who are in arrears will 
take the earliest opportunity, either by the post, or through their 
friends, to pay the same; which request, if complied with, will enable 
the Printer to go on with his business, and make such improvements 
in his paper as to render it worthy of their patronage. 

The next notice, which appeared November 14, of the 
same year, is rather more peremptory: 

This day's paper finishes the third quarter of the current year: 
Those who are in arrear are seriously requested to pay the same by 
the 31st. instant, or they may depend upon being 

At the end of the third year of the Joiinial's history 
(February 13, 1782), the editor, while acknowledging "the 
high sense he has of the favours of those gentlemen who, 
by their punctual payments, have enabled him to keep in the 
field of literature and politics," gives warning to "a number 
of contrary principles, who have been callous to every gentle 
invitation to come and discharge their arrearages, . . . that 
self preservation dictates the absolute necessity of shortly 
balancing his books, and hopes they will not, by their neglect 
of payment, compel him to do what is repugnant to his in- 
clination." 

The patriot printer encountered other difficulties besides 
those caused by the delinquency of his subscribers. During 
the month of February in the "hard winter" of 1780, 
scarcity of paper compelled him to reduce the size of the 



270 History of Chatham 

Journal to a sheet measuring approximately 10 by 18 inches, 
each page containing only two columns instead of three. 
"The inclemency of the weather," he wrote, "which has 
stopped all the paper mills, obliges us, for the present, to 
reduce the size of our paper; but as soon as it moderates, 
so that the mills can go again, it will be printed on paper 
of the usual size." The issue of October 3, 1781, consisted 
of a half sheet only (two pages instead of four), and a card 
in the news columns attributed the abridgment to the 
editor's illness. 

In examining the files of the New J ersey Journal one is 
impressed with its lack of local news. The editor, of course, 
could not describe the movements of the army without be- 
traying his country's secrets; but we cannot so easily explain 
his failure to report more incidents of a non-military char- 
acter which could have been published without jeopardizing 
public interests. The historian, having in mind the wealth 
of information contained in public prints of modern times, 
would expect to find in this Revolutionary newspaper a mine 
of historical data relating to Chatham; but in this respect 
the Journal is very disappointing. At that period almost all 
journalists seemed to consider local news of but little interest 
or importance ; and as even the weekly or semi-weekly papers 
then printed in New York generally confined such matter to 
a fe^w sentences, we cannot wonder at the shortcomings of a 
newspaper published in a country village. In almost every 
issue of the New Jersey Journal is a news article headed 
Chath.'\m; but this caption simply indicates that the 
news therein contained was compiled or edited at Chatham 
— it seldom relates to local occurrences.' In common with 

'This caption was technically called the "Chatham head." It was a 
feature which was not peculiar to the Nnj; Jersey Journal: news articles 
under the Chatham head also appeared at irregular intervals in the Ne<iv 
Jersey Gazette, of Trenton, and in some of the papers of New York, Phil- 
adelphia, and other places. As a rule they contained general news compiled 
at Chatham by someone who, in the case of the patriot papers, was probably 



News Items 271 

other papers of the period, the Journal was mainly filled with 
tidings gathered from all sections of the American colonies 
and vanous parts of Great Britain, considerable space being 
allotted to Parliamentary debates and other intelligence 
from London; and even an uprising of the Sepovs in India 
received more attention than happenings in Chatham. Local 
events seem to have been noticed only when the incident 
Itself was considered remarkable, or when public interest had 
been aroused to an unusual extent. Some of these items 
read as follows : 

On Friday last arrived at Camp, from Philadelphia his Ex- 
cellency Mons. Gerard, Ambassador from the Court of France to 
review the army, where he was received with the honours due to' his 
high station, and on Saturday last he set out to return again. 

No. 12; May 4, ij-jg. 

On Saturday last was executed for desertion, at camp, a soldier 
belonging to the Jersey brigade; and on Monday three spies shared 
the same fate. 

A'o. 7// June 21, lySo. 

Mrs. Washington passed through this place, since our last on 
her way to Philadelphia. 

No. 72; July 5, i-jSo. 

General Washington, we are told, put the army in motion last 
Sunday, and moved towards King's Bridge; and as a verv heavy 
cannonade was heard most of last Sunday night and Monda^ morn- 
ing. It IS supposed Fort Washington was attacked. 

A'O. 126; July 18, 1781. 

Last Wednesday morning Solomon Brant terminated his life bv 
cutting his throat. He got up very early in the morning and walked 

events which occurred in Chatham Publications any mention of 



272 History of Chatham 

out, but not coming to breakfast as usual, his wife sent his daughter to 
look in the cornfield if he was not there, when, to her astonishment, 
she found him a corse. 

No. 128; August I, 1 78 1. 

Last Friday, Benjamin Rogers, a simpleton, was drowned in 
Pesaic river, near the Old Mill/ He went to bathe, as was usual, 
and was seen to dive off of a tree, but never more appeared until he 
was taken up. 

No. 130; August 15, 1 78 1. 

Just as this paper was going to press, the following copy of a 
letter from Col. Miles, D.Q.M.G. at Philadelphia, to Col. Neilson, 
at Trenton, was received. 

"Philadelphia, Oct. 22, 1781. 
"SIR, 

"I have the pleasure of Congratulating you on the capture of 
Cornwallis and his whole army on the 17th. instant. The particu- 
lars are not come to hand. The President of Congress has just 
received a copy of Count de Grasse's letter to the Governor of Mary- 
land, sent by water to Annapolis, so that there is not a doubt of the 
Fact. The Count has taken his troops on board and gone out to 
meet Mr. Digby. That they may meet is the hearty prayer of. Sir, 

"Your most obedient servant, 
"SAMUEL MILES, D. Q. M." 
Col. Neilson. 

A Philadelphia paper of Monday last has the following para- 
graph. — "With the most unbounded pleasure we can assure the pub- 
lic that dispatches have this moment arrived, giving an account of the 
unconditional surrender of Lord Cornwallis on the 17th instant, to 
our magnanimous General Washington." 

No. 140; October 24, 1781. 

'Reference is occasionally found in the Journal to the old mill, located 
on Passaic River about a mile from Chatham. This was probably the struc- 
ture built near the Watchung Avenue crossing by William Broadwell, who 
settled here in 1737. A deed evidencing the sale of a neighboring tract 
of land in 1824 contains a reference to "the old mill now called Franklin 
Mill." — Morris County records, 1-3, 41^. The Franklin mill stood on the 
south side of Watchung .Avenue between the river and the race, and was 
demolished in March, 1909. 



News Itkms and Advertisements 273 

On receiving confirmation of the capture of Cornvvallis, twenty 
gentlemen of this place and the neighbourhood, met on Monday 
evening last at Mr. Day's tavern, where they supped, and spent a 
few hours in convivial mirth and jocund festivity. Illuminations and 
bon-fires were exhibited on the occasion. 

Nothing could exceed the joy that was visible in every coun- 
tenance on the news of Cornwallis' capture ; bonfires and illumina- 
tions were exhibited in almost every town and village in this State. 

No. 141: October Jl. IjSl. 

Friday passed through this place under guard, seven tatterde- 
malions, taken the preceeding day on Bergen by a party under the 
command of Captain Hendricks. 

No. 174; June 12. 1782. 

Last Friday one Cook, a soldier in the second Jersey regiment, 
was hung at camp for the reiterated crimes of desertion and theft. 

No. I7Q; July 17, 1782. 

Further items are quoted in other parts of this volume 
in connection with the historical events to which they refer. 

The dearth of Chatham news in the columns of the 
Journal naturally leads to a perusal of the advertisements.' 
Some of these possess considerable local interest, but a large 
number of them were sent from distant parts of the State, 
owing to the scarcity of newspapers at that time, and throw 
no light upon the history of Chatham. Much attention was 
given to the breeding of horses, indicating the value of these 
animals in newly settled districts at a time when almost all 
land travel was on horseback; John Leary, Jr., Nathaniel 

' A few advertisements relating to Chatham were inserted in the 
Gazette before the Journal was established. During February, 1778, Eunice 
and Foster Horton advertised drygoods, etc., for sale at their store; and on 
June 3, 1778, John Hunt offered for sale a farm of 108 acres "pleasantly 
situated in a village of great resort called Chatham." In the Pennsyl-vania 
Packet, of July IS, 1777, at which time no newspapers were published in 
New Jerse\', Jacob .Morrell ad\'erlised for the return of a light bay horse 
strayed or stolen from his home in Chatham. 



274 History of Chatham 

Seabury and John Blanchard of Chatham being among the 
numerous advertisers of this business. The crime of horse- 
stealing seems to have been prevalent, for many rewards 
were advertised for the return of stolen animals. Rewards 
were also offered for the apprehension of runaway slaves 
and apprentices of both sexes, most of the latter advertise- 
ments having been received by the editor from distant places. 
Legal notices are also found, referring to sheriffs' sales and 
sales of forfeited estates. Official notices were inserted 
from time to time by the civil and military authorities, relat- 
ing to such matters as the value of the currency, standard 
of weights and measures, contracts for furnishing supplies 
for the army, and rewards for the arrest of deserters. A 
few of these notices, which have reference to Chatham, are 
quoted in illustration. 

TO BE SOLD (for CASH) At the house of William Dar- 
ling, Chatham, Thirty Cast HORSES, on Saturday the 4th. of 
November, by AARON FORMAN Q[uarter] M [aster]. Morris- 
town, October 31. 1780. 

No. 8q; November I, lySo. 

The Committee of Essex County Associators request the Whig 
inhabitants of Morris county to meet them at the house of Matthias 
Woodruff, in Chatham, on Tuesday the 24th. instant, precisely at 
one o'clock, on business of the greatest importance. 

Vaux Hall, April 17, 1781. 
No. 1 13; April 18, 178 1. 

As there is great reason to believe that a considerable number of 
muskets, the property of the United States, have been left with some 
of the inhabitants of this state ; All persons who have any such 
muskets, or know where they are secreted, are requested to give im- 
mediate information to some continental officer that they may be 
recovered for the use of the states. Any person convicted of pur- 



Advertisements 27 c 

chasing from a soldier, either arms or ammunition, must expect to be 
prosecuted agreeable to the laws of this state. 

Elias Dayton, Col. Com. Jersey Brigade. 
Chatham, June 26. 1781. 
No. 122; June 20, 1781. 

PUBLIC Notice is hereby given, to all who belonged to the 
brigade of wagons, in the service of the United States, conducted 
by Daniel Day, deceased, to meet the Executors of the said Daniel 
Day at the house of the subscriber, on Saturday next, at 2 o'clock in 
the afternoon, with their evidences to prove their right to the cer- 
tificates taken by said Day for said brigade. 

Timothy Day. 
N. B. All who are indebted to said estate, are requested to settle 
the same immediately, to prevent trouble 

April 2 1782. 
No. 164; April 3, 1782. 

Of greater interest are the quaint business cards and 
similar advertisements of the residents of Chatham, which, 
in the absence of more vokmiinous local news, give some 
conception of everyday occurrences at that early period. We 
seem brought into closer touch with the Revolutionary 
village when we read that John Stevens supplies fresh beef 
in season on Tuesday and Friday evenings, for hard cash 
only, and that he gives cash and the highest prices for fat 
cattle; that Timothy Day has some household mahogany 
furniture for sale, and will supply any kind of furniture of 
any quality; that John Donohue is conducting the weaving 
business at his shop near Nathaniel Bonnel's; and that 
Nathaniel Bonnel is erecting a fulling mill at Chatham, in 
Morris County, which will be ready to go in ten or fifteen 
days. Groceries, drygoods, hardware, &c., are advertised 
with some degree of regularity, to be sold for cash, work, 
or country produce, by the village storekeepers, Foster 
Horton, the editor himself, Jacob Morrell, and the latter's 
successor, Samuel Ailing. West India rum and French 
brandy are offered by Sylvanus Seely, Joseph Fordin and 



276 History of Chatham 

Jacob Hallett; iron wire, copper rivets and teakettle bottoms 
by Samuel Van Horn; and books by Peter Smith and the 
editor of the Journal. 

Domestic articles, household goods, &c., at public 
vendue (such auctions sometimes indicating a change of 
residence) are advertised by William Darling, Timothy 
Day, John Donohue, Jacob Hallett, William Leary, Jacob 
Morrell and Matthias Woodruff, as well as by Azariah and 
Foster Horton, executors of Eunice Horton, deceased. 
Real estate at public and private sale is also offered: the 
editor advertises a house and lot; Ezekiel Gillam, a house 
and shop near the printing office ; John Leary, George Town- 
ley and Andrew Stockholm, a farm, and a house and shop 
near the old mill; Peter Smith, a farm; Stephen Day, a lot 
of grass belonging to the widow Miller at the new bridge; 
John Blanchard of Chatham, land known as Great Piece, at 
Horse Neck; and Thomas Randall of Chatham, a house 
with garden and pasture to be let at Connecticut Farms. 

Elias Dayton, George Everson, Matthias Winans and 
Matthias Woodruff request a speedy settlement by their re- 
spective debtors; David Vanderpool forewarns the public to 
desist from trespassing upon his meadow, under penalty of 
prosecution; Captain Elijah Squier of Cheapside advertises 
for a school teacher for the ensuing summer; Joseph Meeker 
announces a reward of two dollars for a lost saddle; Thad- 
deus Day will give thirty dollars for information leading to 
the recovery of a red bull; Elihu Linley offers fifty dollars 
for the return of a black mare strayed or stolen ; and Christo- 
pher Beekman of Griggstown, a reward of two hundred dol- 
lors for a horse stolen at Chatham. David Baldwin of 
Chatham advertises for a mare strayed or stolen at 
Pequanack, and Cornelius Osborne of Hanover Township, 
near Chatham, offers one hundred and fifty dollars for a 
black horse stolen from the stable of Mr. Mercereau on 
Staten Island; while Moses Cory, Thaddeus Day, Timothy 



Advertisements 277 

Day, Paul Day, Joseph Grummon and Samuel Searing 
describe estrays which have come to their respective planta- 
tions, and call upon the owners of such animals to appear 
and remove their property. 

Stockholm and Leary intimate that all persons having 
demands against them should present the same to William 
Leary of Chatham;' John Donohue, announcing a vendue of 

' Andrew Stockholm and John Leary were partners in trade in the 
spring and summer of 1781, as is shown by a letter addressed to them by 
one of their corrtspondents. The post rider having been captured by the 
enemy, and the mail-bag carried to New York, the letters it contained, 
including the one given below, were published in Rivington's Royal Gazette 
of June 9. 

Boston, May 23, 1781. 

CJentlemen: — Your favor 11th. instant 1 received this day. I wrote you 
two letters within those seven days, giving an account of our friend Dickson's 
business and shipments, &c. kc. which I hope is come to hand. I think it abso- 
lutely necessary that Leary goes immediately to Philadelphia, that he may 
give me an exact account of every kind of business there, particularly 
exchange, which, to our concern, will be of an amazing service. I also think 
it high time for Stockholm to go immediately to the Cape, as an amazing 
deal of business may be carried on with a very small capital; if he will 
come this way, I shall be able to supply him with some money, and in a 
little time, if we are not very unfortunate, with more. I shall write to 
Dickson, as you desire, not to ship any goods to Philadelphia, but what is 
entirely covered by ensurance, as the risk of getting safe is much greater 
than coming here. I shall hav'e an opportunity' next Sunday, at which 
time I shall send him 1500 livres — I believe I could send him more, but 
French bills are not now selling, so that if you have any hard money by 
you, by all means purchase in Philadelphia, where I am informed they 
may be bought at 4s 6d the dollar. The brig Sally is not yet arrived, am 
in great hopes she will in a few days, especially as the English fleet have 
now left Rhode Island, where, no one can tell; but the French are going 
out to protect their convoy, which consists of 15 transports, two frigates, 
and a 50 gun ship; so that in a few days we shall, I imagine, hear some- 
thing new; at any rate it will give an opportunity for our property to come 
safe. I sincerely hope some of the vessels bound to Philadelphia are 
arrived, as the first shipments to us are of very great consequence. 

We have nothing further worth your attention, should anything turn 
up, let me know; and depend you shall be made acquainted with everything 
this way. 

I remain, with esteem, gentlemen, 

Y'our most obedient servant, 

■ John R. Livingston, & Co. 

P.S. Dickson has shipp'd to Philadelphia, in the Marquis le Fayette, of 
42 guns, 400£ sterling in tea, — in Capt. Josiah, 200 in do and linens, — in 
Capt. Bell, 200 in do. do. — in ship Franklin, 12614 livres, what article 
unknown, — in the brig Sally, to Providence, 12614 livres, unknown, — in the 
ship Aurora, arrived, livres 5000, chintzes and callicoes. 

I wrote you this, as you may not have received my two former letters 
mentioning it. 
Mess. Stockholm and Leary, Chatham. 



278 History of Chatham 

his house, household goods, shop and garden, one mile from 
Chatham near the old mill, wants two apprentices in the 
carpenter and joiner business (house- or ship-carpenter) to 
go to Philadelphia till New York is in our possession; the 
editor advertises for one or two boys of good characters, 
willing to learn the beautiful and genteel business of print- 
ing; for a boy of twelve or fourteen years old as apprentice 
to the art of paper making; for a schoolmaster; for two post 
riders, one for Morris County, the other for the lower 
route; for an experienced book binder; for good untainted 
sheepskins, with or without wool; and for clean linen rags, 
for which latter commodity he offers two sheets of writing 
paper or the highest price in money per pound — the highest 
price varying, with the fluctuation of the currency, from 
three pence to two shillings. 

From time to time references to the United States lot- 
tery are found, this being a matter in which Rev. James 
Caldwell seems to have taken an active interest. It is 
announced in the Journal of February 2, 1780, that lottery 
tickets of the third class are to be had of Mr. Caldwell at 
Springfield, or Mr. Aaron Ogden at Newark. The issue of 
October 4th, of the same year, contains a card inserted by 
the parson which reads: 

A list of fortunate numbers in the third class of the United 
States lottery to be seen at Mr. William Darling's in Chatham; Mr. 
Woodruff's, Springfield; Mr. Aaron Ogden 's Newark; and Mr. 
Winans's, Elizabeth Town. 

Those who have drawn blanks are to preserve their tickets for 
renewal. 

And on March 7, 1781, the reverend gentleman adver- 
tises that those who purchased from him lottery tickets in 
the third class may renew them in the fourth, by applying at 
his house in New Providence with tickets and cash. 



Advertisements 279 

Occasionally the Journal contained the echo of a 
domestic tragedy— a card stating that the subscriber's wife 
has left him without just cause or excuse, and that he will 
assume no responsibility for any debts which she may con- 
tract in his name; sometimes followed in the next issue by a 
spirited reply from the indignant spouse, containing denials 
and recriminations. In cases where such notices were con- 
tinued through successive numbers of the paper, the hus- 
band's accusations and the wife's countercharges were gener- 
ally printed in immediate sequence. The advertisement of 
Ebenezer Searls may be regarded as typical of these warn- 
ings : 

WHEREAS RUTH, the wife of the subscriber, having de- 
stroyed my interest, and behaved herself in a very unbecoming manner, 
This is therefore to forewarn all persons not to trust her on my 
account, as I am determined not to pay any debts of her contracting 
after this date. 
Oct. 10, 1780. EBENEZER SEARLS. 

WHEREAS an advertisement appeared in the last Chatham 
paper, forewarning all persons not to trust the subscriber on her 
husband's account: This is therefore to acquaint the public, that I 
will not pay any debts of his contracting from the date hereof. As 
to his interest which he says I have destroyed, I know of none he has, 
without it is what he claims of my estate, in which he has no right, 
there being a contract between us previous to our marriage which 
cuts him off of any claim. 
^^^- 17> 1780. RUTH SEARLS. 

In answer to a notice of similar import inserted by 
William Crawford, his wife replied: 

Whereas William Crawford, my husband, has been so lost to 
every principle of honour, friendship, truth and common humanity, 
as to advertise me as having eloped from him : These are to let the 



28o History of Chatham 

public know that what he has asserted is without the least colour of 
truth, as he refused letting me enter the house on any account, for 
no other reason than making a visit to a neighbour in the afternoon, 
and, by reason of a hard shower, was detained until the next morn- 
ing. If this is the way women are to be treated by husbands, we 
are more wretched than slaves. 
June 6, 1781. MARY CRAWFORD. 

One of those who published a notice of this character 
was Levy Gardner, whose wife in her answer not only 
denied his accusations, but offered a reward of thirty 
dollars and all reasonable charges to "any person that will 
take up said Gardner, and secure him in any gaol, so that his 
wife may have restitution made her." 

Two cases are noted in which the husband embellished 
the conventional disclaimer of responsibility with poetic 
lines. John Scott thus concluded his advertisement: 

The Injured Husband. 
What friendly ray, in pity drest, 

O say, can hope bestow, 
To give distraction sight or rest, 

Or sooth eternal woe? 
Life's little lamp, one tender beam 

To grief no more can spare. 
But faintly turns a dying gleam 

On anguish and despair. 
Look down unending source of fate, 

From your obedient skies, 
And Oh ! instruct a wretch to hate 

The fair he must despise. 
Whatever tortures rend his breast, 

Whatever conflicts roll. 
Teach him to tear her from his breast, 

And root her from his soul. 
Once, pure as winter's whitest snow, 

She gave her sacred vow! 



Kollock's Publications 281 

Once, pure as innocence, but Oh, 

Just heaven what is she now ? 
Then grant a wife, indulgent fate, 

On which my heart is set, 
Or if I must not think to hate, 

O let me but forget. 

William Willis expressed his sorrow in like manner: 

Since it was my fortune to be join'd 

To such a wretched mate, 
I've strove to reconcile my mind 

To my unhappy fate. 
I've born insults and threats likewise, 

I've strove for to persuade, 
But them that's hardened so in vice 

Regard not what is said. 
Without a cause she left m\' bed. 

And broke her marriage vow. 
So basely from me she has fled, 

Who then can blame me now ? 
Then pity my unhappy fate. 

Beware of woman's arts. 
For oft within a snowy breast 

Lurks a deceitful heart. 

Shepard Kollock did not confine his operations in the 
printing business to the publication of a newspaper: he also 
printed almanacs, sermons, poems, &c., in pamphlet form; 
and from his advertisement in the Nc-zv Jersey J oiinuil for a 
book binder, to whom he offered constant employment and 
good wages, we infer that these pamphlets were sub- 
stantially bound. They were ad\ertised in the paper from 
time to time when ready for sale. Many of them are still 
extant, and contain the Chatham imprint; and the advertise- 
ments imply that some of those which have been lost were 
also printed, as well as sold, by the editor. At one time he 



282 History of Chatham 

announced through the medium of his paper that he pro- 
posed to issue a weekly magazine of science and amusement 
to be called the Political Intelligencer, provided the neces- 
sary support and encouragement were assured; but appar- 
ently the desired encouragement did not materialize, for no 
record remains of such periodical having been published 
here. 

CHATHAM IMPRINTS. 

1779. Rev. Uzal Ogden: A Sermon on Practical Religion. (No. 1) 
Rev. Jacob Green : A Fast Day Sermon. 

Rev. Wheeler Case: A Book of Eight Poems on Several 
Occurrences in the Present Grand 
Struggle for American Liberty. 

United States Almanac for 1780. 

1780. Rev. Uzal Ogden: A Sermon on Practical Religion. (No. 2.) 
Rev. Jacob Green : A Sermon on Persons Possessing the 

Iniquities of their Youth in After Life. 
Rev. Jacob Green: A Sermon Designed for Instruction and 

Warning of Youth of Both Sexes. 
United States Almanac for 1781. 

1781. Associated Presbytery of Morris County: A View of the 

Christian Church and Church Govern- 
ment. 

Rev. Uzal Ogden: A Sermon Delivered at Roxburj' at the 
Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Hackett. 

United States Almanac for 1782. 

1782. Poems on the Capture of General Burgoyne. 

Isaac Watts: Divine Songs for the Use of Children. 
United States Almanac for 1783. 

1783. Isaac Watts: Psalms of David. 

Rev. Ebenezer Elmer: Elog\' on Francis Barber. 
Rev. Amzi Lewis : The Covenant Interest of the Children 
of Believers. 



The Journal Discontinued 283 

As a storekeeper, Kollock dealt in a limited variety of 
groceries and drygoods, but was a rather extensive book- 
seller; and it is thought that some of the school-books which 
he advertised for sale, notably the spelling-books and 
primers, were printed by himself. 

Captain Kollock ceased the publication of the Nezv 
Jersey Journal, and moved to New York, shortly after the 
evacuation of that city by the British. The last number of 
the Journal which has been located is dated November 12, 
1783, and contains the announcement that the paper would 
be discontinued "at the evacuation of New York," to be suc- 
ceeded by the New York Gazette and Country Journal} 
There could not have been more than one or two subsequent 
issues, since the evacuation took place on November 25th. 
Upon taking up his residence in New York, Captain 
Kollock opened a book store at No. 22 Hanover Square, 
and had a printing office at the corner of Wall and Water 
Streets, where he printed the New York Gozeteer, a tri- 
weekly publication which was the first newspaper issued at 
such frequent intervals in the metropolis. He also printed 
the first city directory. 

About a month before his departure from Chatham, 
namely, on the 14th of October, 1783, Captain Kollock 
founded a newspaper at New Brunswick called the Political 
Intelligencer and New Jersey Advertiser, which he published 
in partnership with his brother-in-law, Shelly Arnett, who 
had served an apprenticeship in the printing office at Chat- 
ham. This New Brunswick paper was subsequently moved 
to Elizabeth, where it first appeared April 20, 1785. About 
a year later Kollock changed its name to the New Jersey 
Journal and Political Intelligencer — a title reminiscent of his 
sojourn at Chatham, combining the name of the periodical 
which he had hoped to publish in this village with that of the 

'American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, .\X\'I, 418. 



284 



History of Chatham 



one which actually existed here — and finally adopted the 
name of the Elizabeth Daily Journal, which has been re- 
tained to the present day. 

Captain Kollock became a permanent resident of 
Elizabeth about the year 1788, and continued in the printing 
business until September i, 18 18, when he sold his interest 
in the Journal. He held the office of postmaster of Eliza- 
beth until 1829, and served as a lay judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Essex County for thirty-six years. He 
was appointed aide-de-camp to Governor Bloomfield with 
the rank of brevet captain, and was reappointed by his 
successor; and was one of the original members of the New 
Jersey Society of the Cincinnati. He died at the home of his 
son-in-law in Philadelphia on July 28, 1839, at the age of 
eighty-eight, and was buried in the churchyard of the First 
Presbyterian church of Elizabeth.^ 

^Netuark Daily Advertiser, July 30, 1839. 

The following announcements are taken from the Neiu York Gazetteer 
of December 10 and 24, 1783: 

The Editor, while a publisher of the New Jersey Journal at Chatham, 
exerted every faculty to stimulate his countrymen to oppose the galling yoke 
we were threatened with; and to maintain the cause of freedom and the 
rights of mankind even at the risk of his personal safet}'. 

TO BE SOLD. THE HOUSE and LOT where the subscriber formerly 
lived, beautifully situated in the pleasant village of Chatham, and an ex- 
ceedingly good stand for a merchant, physician or tradesman. Any person 
desirous of purchasing will be allowed a reasonable time for payment. 

S. Kollock. 




CHAPTER XII 

The Detention at Chatham of Generals Phillips and 
Keidesel of Birgovne's Army, Prisoners of War. 

The Terms of Surrender at Saratoga— Controversv respecting alle-^ed 
Violations of the Terms— Burgovne returns to England and 
IS succeeded by Phillips-The captured Army imprisoned in the 
bouth— The Exchange of Phillips and Reidesel negotiated— 
They set out for \eu- York on Parole— They are stopped at 
t^hzabeth, Congress having refused to ratify the Exchange— 
1 hey are removed to Chatham, and later to Bethlehem— They 
are ultimately released. 

THE most distinguished prisoners of war who were de- 
tamed in Chatham during the Revolution were Major- 
General William Phillips and Major-General Friedrich 
Adolph Baron de Reidesel, two of the chief officers of 
Burgoyne's army in the disastrous campaign which ter- 
minated with the surrender at Saratoga. 

The terms of surrender, which were entitled Arti- 
cles OF Convention, in deference to the wishes of 
General Burgoyne, who preferred the word "convention" to 
the more humiliating "capitulation,"' provided among other 
things that he and his entire army should be permitted to 
return to England, on condition that they would not again 
serve in America during the war. This was a most un- 
fortunate stipulation, to which General Gates never should 
have consented; for it is clear that if the captives, who 
numbered between four and five thousand, were allowed to 
return home, they would release an equal number of British 
troops then serving in Europe, who could be immediately 
sent to America without violating the terms of the conven- 

' Windsor's Handbook of the .American Revolution 149. 



286 History of Chatham 

tion; thus completely nullifying the victory. Moreover, the 
patriots hoped that the friendly attitude of the French would 
ripen into active assistance, since war between France and 
England was anticipated; and if Burgoyne's troops, instead 
of being held captive, were permitted to return to Europe, 
and should be employed there in fighting against the French, 
the friendship between France and America would be 
seriously menaced. 

Soon after the removal of the captured army from Sara- 
toga to Cambridge, Mass., whence they were to take ship 
for England, Burgoyne petitioned that they might be allowed 
to embark, in Rhode Island in order to facilitate and expedite 
their departure; and he took occasion, in a letter to Gates, 
to protest against an alleged violation of the terms of sur- 
render, which provided that the officers and men should be 
separately confined, stating that they were all imprisoned in 
the same enclosure, and insisting that "the public faith had 
been broken." As a matter of fact, some of the articles 
were violated by both parties. The British failed to give up 
certain equipments as agreed, and to surrender the colors 
of their various regiments. The Americans were assured 
that the flags had been destroyed, but it was afterwards 
learned that they had been hidden, and later smuggled out 
of the country. There was a good deal of wrangling on 
both sides; and the Continental Congress at length decided 
to detain the captured army until assured that the 
articles of convention would be fully lived up to. Con- 
gress feared that if Burgoyne believed, or pretended to be- 
lieve, that the Americans had committed a breach of faith, as 
charged in his letter to Gates, he would not hesitate to en- 
tirely disregard all the terms of surrender as soon as he 
and his troops were afloat; and although they permitted him 
and his staff to sail for England on parole, they refused to 
allow the departure of his army until the articles of con- 



The Convention Troops 287 

vention had been ratified by the British government. This 
the British government did not do, and the captives were 
accordingly held in this coimtry until the close of the war.' 

In November, 1778, they were removed from 
Cambridge to a detention camp at Charlottesville, Va., re- 
maining there until 1780, when the operations of Cornwallis 
in that vicinity imperilled their safe keeping. They were 
then conveyed to the Shenandoah valley, later to Frederick, 
Md., and finally to Lancaster, Pa. During the years of their 
captivity occasional attempts were made by some of the 
British prisoners to escape and to rejoin their army, and a 
few of them were successful. The Germans, who seem to 
have been guarded with mucli less care, deserted in large 
numbers upon the march from Cambridge to the South, and 
established permanent homes among their countrymen who 
had previously settled in America. A few of the prisoners 
enlisted in the American army,- and others were exchanged 
from time to time; but a large number remained in captivity 
until peace was declared in 1783.' 

The artillery in Burgoyne's force was commanded by 
General Phillips, while Baron Reidesel led the German 
mercenaries. The latter was accompanied by his wife and 
children during the campaign, and Madam Reidesel's jour- 
nal, which has been printed both in German and English, 
contains a very interesting record of its writer's exciting and 
perilous experiences. Upon Burgoyne's departure for Eng- 
land, Phillips, by virtue of his rank, declared himself the 
commanding officer of the "convention troops," as the cap- 
tured army was called in reference to the articles of 

'Avery's United States, VI, 130. 

'On September 27, 1780, an advertisement appeared in the AVw Jersey 
Gazette inviting Germans who had deserted from the British army to join 
the Royal Regiment of Deux Fonts and that of the Duke of Lauzun's Hus- 
sars, both of which were then serving in America under Rochambeau. 

'Avery's United States, VI, 132; Green's American Revolution, 128. 



288 History of Chatham 

convention under which they had surrendered;' and "in 
this trying situation," says his biographer, "he at times ex- 
hibited evidences of a cholerick and impatient temper.'" 
The phraseology is probably milder than the circumstances 
warranted; for Phillips was a man of singularly irritable 
disposition and ungovernable passion, who held the Amer- 
icans in the utmost contempt and detestation.' 

Phillips was a personal friend of Lord Cornvvallis, and 
the latter took an active interest in an endeavor to bring 
about his exchange, which was ultimately effected. In the 
autumn of 1779, while Phillips and Reidesel were confined in 
the South, they received the welcome intelligence that they 
with their adjutants were to be permitted to go to New York 
on parole; and they immediately started on the journey 
northward. At York, Pa., Reidesel was joined by his wife 
and children after a temporary separation, and the party 
traveled together to Bethlehem, and thence to Elizabeth, 
N. J.; but at the latter place, while almost in sight of their 
destination, they were bitterly disappointed to learn that 
they would not be allowed to proceed; Congress having de- 
cided to detain them pending the adjustment and payment of 
certain accounts against the convention army. They were, 
therefore, obliged to return to Bethlehem, through which 
they had already passed twice in the course of their journeys 
in captivity, and while on their way from Elizabeth to that 
place the party stopped, from about the 1st until the 7th of 
October, at Chatham. They remained at Bethlehem about 
six weeks, and were then permitted to continue their journey 
to New York.' 

' Windsor's Handbook of the .^mel■ican Revolution, 149. 
"O'Callaghan's Burgoyne's Orderly Book, Munsell's Hist. Ser. VII, 60 n. 
" Drake's Dictionary of American Biography, 714. 

'Stone's Madam Reidesel's Journal, 163; Stone's Von Elking's Reidesel, 
II, 71; Ford's Journals of the Continental Congress, XV, 114 n. 



Detp:ntion of the Prisoners 289 

EXTRACT OF THE JOURNAL OF MADAM REIDESEL. 

We came to a very pretty place, opposite Stateii Island, called 
Elizabeth-town, where we found many royalists who welcomed us 
joyfully and treated us with hospitality. We were now so near 
New York and counted so surely on the exchange of my husband 
and the actual fulfilment of our dearest wishes, that, as we sat to- 
gether at dinner, we confidently believed that we should cross over 
immediately to New York and be restored to freedom that same even- 
ing. But suddenly the door opened and an officer, sent by General 
Washington, stepped inside and handed to General Phillips a letter 
with an order to return again, as the congress had refused to ratify 
the exchange. The eyes of General Phillips, who was by nature very 
passionate, fairly scintillated with rage. He struck the table with 
his fist, and said, "This is pleasant! but we should have expected it 
from these people who are all rascals!" I was like one petrified, and 
could not utter a single word. He seized me by the hand, and said 
to me, "Now, my friend, do not allow your courage to fail you. 
Follow my example! See how collected I am!" "Everyone," an- 
swered I to him, "shows his sorrow in his own fashion. I keep mine 
in my heart, and you manifest yours with passion. But it is my 
opinion that you would do better not to allow these people to see 
you in such a passion, who will only make sport of you, and may 
perhaps make you still more trouble." He acknowledged that I was 
right, thanked me, and assured me that he, like myself, would bear 
his sufferings w ith resignation. From this time he conducted him- 
self perfectly quietly. 

ORDER OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM 
WOODFORD 

To Joshua Mesere.au, Deputy Commissary of Prisoners. 

Elizabeth Town, September 30, 177Q. 
Sir, 

You will remove Major General Phillips and the Officers 

of the Convention Troops under your care with their families and 

attendants to Chatham, where you will have proper quarters provided 

for them till you receive further orders for their destination.' 

' American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Carleton Papers, 11, 44. 



290 History of Chatham 

From Gaine's New York JFeekly Mercury, October 
4, 1779: 

The Generals Philips, Reidesel, &c., advanced on their Parole 
from the Convention army in Virginia, as far as Elizabeth Town in 
Jersey, on their Way to this City, were, as we are informed, yes- 
terday prevented from proceeding by an Express from the Con- 
gress, which occasioned their being removed to the Village of Chat- 
ham, in that Province. 

From the same paper of October iith: 

Chatham, October 5. — On Thursday last arrived here Major 
General Philips, of the convention troops, and his suit; and on Sat- 
urday, Major General Reidesel, of the Brunswick troops, with his 
Lady and suit. They were as far as Elizabeth-Town, on their way 
to New- York, on parole, but were stopped by order of Congress, and 
ordered here until further orders. 

MAJOR GENERAL PATTISON, OF THE BRITISH 

FORCES IN NEW YORK, TO VISCOUNT 

TOWNSHEND. 

New York, Octr. 8th, 1779. 

My Lord 

********* * 

Leave having been granted by the American Congress for Major 
Generals Philips & Reidesel to come from Virginia to New York 
on Parole, they arrived at Elizabeth Town in the Jerseys on the 30th 
Sepr., from whence Captain Campbell, Dy. Qr. Mr. General, was 
immediately dispatch'd hither with a Flag of Truce, and on the 
same Evening I sent hither [thither] proper Vessels for conveying 
those Officers & their Families, but to my great surprise and Disap- 
pointment I received advice from General Philips the Day following 
that an Order came the Evening before from Congress, to stop their 
proceeding to New York, and to remove them to Chatham, without 
assigning Reason for their Detention, since which they have been 



Phillips at Chatham 291 

sent further into the Country, to Easton. General Washington has 
been wrote to upon the Subject, but his Answer is not vet arrived "' 



***** 



A few of Phillips's letters dating from this period are 
preserved among the American manuscripts relating to the 
Revolutionary War in the Royal Institution in London. On 
October 5th he writes to Sir Henry Clinton from Chatham 
in New Jersey; refers to two previous letters announcing 
his arrival and detention at Elizabeth Town; Major 
Skinner has just informed him of an order that Reidesel and 
himself with their respective families should proceed back 
to Easton, Bethlehem, or Reading in Pennsylvania;-' Major 
Skinner has given permission for Lieutenant Bibby to carry 
this letter to New York; enquires if it might not be well to 
detain the flag ready to sail to Virginia until something is 
determined, as they would require to send every material for 
living if they are to return there, having sold off all their 
furniture, not conceiving it possible that any obstructions 
could be made; the Resolves of Congress upon which they 
are detained are of the 27th and 28th September; is en- 
tirely ignorant of the motives; is sorry for Reidesel as he has 
need of medical advice; proposed to request an explanation 
and suggests if it would not be more proper to return to 
Virginia than to linger for the decision of the American 
Congress who so often alter their way of thinking upon the 
subject of his situation; awaits the return of Lieut. Bibby 
with his Excellency's commands to set out from this place. 
In a second letter of the same date from Chatham in 
New Jersey, he requests Clinton to give orders that two 

'New York Historical Society Collections, VIII, 129. 

"The Board of War directed that Phillips and Reidesel should be 
detained either at Easton, Bethlehem, or Reading. Washington considered 
Bethlehem preferable, and issued orders accordingly.— //'rti//;«<//o« to Skin- 
ner, October 2, lyjc,, Ifashington Papers in Library of Conaress BX ft 
■f. 235- ' • ■' ' • 



292 History of Chatham 

hundred guineas may be sent out by Lieut. Bibby for his 
use. 

On the following day he writes again to Clinton from 
Chatham in New Jersey, stating that Major Skinner accom- 
panied Lieut. Bibby to Elizabeth Town to assist him in 
getting permission to go to New York, but on their arrival 
at Elizabeth Town, Major Hay, the Commandant, judged 
proper not to allow it. Had proposed to send in his 
baggage that it might be sent to Virginia in a flag if neces- 
sary; this, also, refused unless submitted to a strict search. 
Requests permission for an enclosed list of articles required 
by Madame de Reidesel to be sent to Elizabeth Town where 
an officer will remain to receive them. Should the flag sail 
immediately he begs only £400 may be sent and requests him 
to order Mr. Smith the Secretary to write an account of their 
situation to Virginia. Major General de Reidesel and him- 
self set out for Easton to-morrow morning. 

He also penned the following letter to General Wash- 
ington: 

Chatham October 6th 1779. 
Sir: 

I shall answer the letter yow have, Sir, been pleased to send me 

by Major Skinner from Easton for which place I am going to set out. 

I writ to you, Sir, from Elizabeth Toivn in consequence of the 
detention of Major General de Riedesel and myself, but to that 
letter I have not received any answer. 

I will not wound General Washington's feelings with a descrip- 
tion of my sentiments of the unkind treatment of the American Con- 
gress, they are such as I believe every Man of sense and honor must 
approve. 

I am greatly obliged for much politeness shewn me by Major 
Skinner. 

I have the honor to be, Sir, with due respect Your Excellency's 

most Obedient and most humble Servant. ,,. „ 

W. Phillips. 

His Excellency General Washington.' 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 34, 97. 



War-Time Letters 293 

SIR HExNRY CLINTON TO GENERAL PHILLIPS. 

H[ead] Q[uarters] N[evv] Y[ork] 
October 11. 1779. 
My dear Sir, 

I have your letter from Chatham & as you may well imagine 
am no less surprised than chagrined at your disappointment. I trust 
yet that as you were exposed to this very troublesome journey & 
allowed yourself to be elated with the pleasing hopes from Genl 
Washington's immediate orders, he will by his interposition on the 
occasion prevent your having any ground for complaint against hirn. 

I have given directions for your being supplied with the articles 
you ask for. 

You will from public report become acquainted with the 
measures which this and other circumstances have made me take with 
respect to prisoners. 

I am, with every wish for your welfare, Sec. 

I shall be much obliged to you if you will recommend Capt. 
Featherstone to succeed to Capt. Craig's Compy in the 47th. I mean 
to interfere as little as possible in the promotions of the Convention 
Army, but I think he is entitled to a Company & I cannot give one 
any where else, he is besides an older Capt. Lt. than the gentn of that 
rank in the Regt.' 

On November ist Baron de Reidesel wrote from Beth- 
lehem to William Fitzhugh, after describing the journey 
from Virginia, which, owing to poor health, he found very 
fatiguing : 

You will easily imagine what was my astonishment at seeing two 
Hours after m>' arrival at Elizabeth Town a Resolve of Congress, 
that we should not be admitted into New York for the present, but 
wait further Orders, adding that we should be removed immediately 
to Chatham, and from thence ha\e been ordered to Bethlehem, where 
we now are.- 

" American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Carleton Papers, 11, 49. 
' Ford's Correspondence of Samuel B. Webb, II, 216. 



294 History of Chatham 

The suit of Phillips and Reidesel consisted of sixteen 
persons, four house servants and twenty horses.' Their 
expenses at Bethlehem amounted to $32,000 in paper money, 
or about £400 specie. A traveler who bought silver coin 
consented to exchange some of their paper currency for 
specie at the rate of 80 to i, and thus enabled them to dis- 
charge their indebtedness." 

Phillips and Reidesel remained at Bethlehem about six 
weeks, and were then permitted to go to New York on 
parole. By order of the Board of War, their journey to 
that city was commenced under the escort of Colonel 
Hooper, a deputy commissary of prisoners stationed at 
Easton, who was instructed to deliver them to Major 
Skinner, commissary of prisoners at Elizabeth; while the 
latter was directed to proceed towards Easton until he met 
the captives and to conduct them to their destination. The 
party did not pass through Chatham on this occasion, but 
followed another route, in order to prevent the prisoners 
from observing the activities of the army in this vicinity. 

WASHINGTON'S INSTRUCTIONS TO HOOPER. 
Head Quarters West point 22d Novr 1779. 

Sir: 

By a letter from the Board of War I am informed that 
they have directed you to conduct Major General Phillips and 
Riedhesil and their families to Eliza: Town. As I would not wish 
them to see the Ground near our new encampment, you are to avoid 
the Chatham Road and conduct them by the way of Bound Brook 
to Elizabeth Town. You are not to communicate your reasons to 
them for this change of the Route. 

I am Sir Yr most obt. Servt. 

Colo. Hooper or Officer conducting Generals Phillips and Riedhesil 
to Eliza: Tovvn.^ 

' Stone's Madam Reidesel's Journal. 

'Mrs. Ellet's The Women of the Revolution, I, 137. 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B.X., pt. 2, 217. 



Release of the Captives 295 

WASHINGTON'S INSTRUCTIONS TO SKINNER. 

West point Novr. 22: 1779. 
Sir: 

By direction of His Excellency the Commander in Chief, 
I transmit you the inclosed by Express. It was intended for Colo. 
Beatty, but the General was informed on inquiry that he was not 
in Camp. You will perceive by the Copy of the Letter to you from 
the Board of War No. 4, that they originally intended you should 
conduct the business of sending Genls. Phillips & Riedesel & their 
families in. It is the Commander in Chief's wish that those Gen- 
tlemen should not proceed on the route by Chatham, but by Bound 
Brook. The Two officers who came on with a view of going to 
Canada by Water, are to be permitted to go to New York on parole. 
His Excellency desired me to mention this, least there should be any 
difficulties about their going in as they may not come within the 
description of either of the Generals families. 
I am Sir 

Yr Most Obt St 

RoBT H: Harrison 

secy. 
To Abraham Skinner, Esq 

Deputy Commissary of prisoners 

by John DeCamp Express.^ 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B.X., pt. 2, 225. 




CHAPTER XIII 

The "Hard Winter" of 1779-80— Choice of eligible Sites for the 
Army's Winter Quarters — Localities near Chatham considered 
— A Position near Morristown selected — Passage of the Troops 
through Chatham — Their Hardships and Sufferings in Camp — 
Lord Stirling's Expedition against Staten Island — Attempt to 
capture Washington — Courtship and Marriage of Ensign 
d'Anterroches. 

AT the close of the campaign of 1779 Washington was 
again confronted with the necessity of selecting a suit- 
able place for his army's winter quarters — a problem which 
on this occasion seems to have been the subject of much 
doubt and uncertainty. As late as November 30th, General 
Nathaniel Greene wrote to one of the quartermasters: "We 
are yet like the wandering Jews in search of a Jerusalem, 
not having fixed upon a position for hutting the army." He 
suggested to Washington two sites for the winter encamp- 
ment: Acquackanonck (Passaic) and Morristown, regarding 
the former as more desirable; but the commander-in-chief 
preferred the latter, and sent Greene to Morristown to look 
over the ground.' Knowing that Washington had not been 
fully satisfied with that location when encamped there in 
1777,' Greene directed Lord Stirling and Colonel James 
Abeel to explore the surrounding country in the hope of 
finding a more favorable site; the result of which investiga- 
tion is thus set forth in a letter written by Stirling to Greene, 
now in the library of the American Philosophical Society of 
Philadelphia. 

' Sherman's Historic Morristown, 279. 
"Spark's Writings of Washington, IV, 264. 



Selection of a Camp-Grounp 297 

Baskingridge Novr 9th 1779. 
Dear Sir: 

In Consequence of Seeing your letter to Colonel Abeel 
of the 4th which I meet in My way to Kakiate, I immediately went 
in order [to] fulfill your Wishes towards Boon Town and traced 
the Country from thence to Chatham, in all that Course, I could 
not find a Spot that would answer, the purpose ; where there is 
water, there is no wood ; and where there is wood there is no water ; 
besides the General possition will by no means Coincide with what 
I believe to be the Wishes of General Washington or yourself, we 
then proceeded by Springfield to the Scotch plains, and this morn- 
ing along the foot of the Mountains to the Quibble Town Gap, 
there are several Scituations below the mountains might do as to 
wood and water and plenty of good houses, but upon the whole they 
are all too much Exposed, to an att[ack] from the Enemy, there is 
nothing to Cover the front [illeffihlc] either flanks, the Quarters of 
all General Officers [illeffible] be in front of the Line, in Short the 
whole will be [i/lcffible] air without the least defense against an 
enterpr [illegible] Genius, in my opinion it will not do below the 
hills. We proceeded on thro' the Quibble Town Gap to a Certain 
Tingle's and turned to the left between the Mountains and in going 
on for about four or five miles we found Several Scituations which 
think are preferable to any in New Jersey, the whole ground is very 
Similar to our Encampment at Middle Brook in 1777, three Gaps 
thro' the Mountain in front and three or four Roads in the Rear, 
one on the Right towards Pluckemin and another on the left towards 
Springfield & Chatham, >et on the whole it is not a [illegible] miles 
to the Sound between [paper torn] Check the in [illegible] Enemy 
either to the Northward or Southward better than any possition we 
have had in this State. As to the particular Scituation Corps, each 
division by being placed about a Mile from each other and nearly 
opposite the Gaps will have plenty of Wood and Water, and on 
Grounds Exposed to the South Eastry sun, w arm and Comfortable. 
In short I do not think there is any Scituation so eligable on this 
Side of the Hudsons River. It is true there are not many Comfort- 
able Houses for the Quarters of Genl Officers, five or six pretty 
good, & 8 or 10 more so so, but we can make Shift if we begin 
early with makeing Huts of Convenience. Some of the Roads & 



298 History of Chatham 

Bridges in flanks & Rear will want repair, and attention should be 
paid to them before bad weather Comes on I did intend to 
proceed immediately to my division, [illegible^ and a little fatigued 
with five days traveling, and [ilhyib/e] are my horses; I will set 
out again in a day or [s]o and join them, unless his Excellency 
should think I may be more useful! in this part of the Country. I 
therefore must desire you will Communicate this letter to him, 
and I should be Glad to have his Sentiments as soon as possible. 

I have this Evening received Intelligence that [Ca]pt Prince 
has received a letter from Capt Dennis [illegible] Monmouth tell- 
ing him that a fleet was Sailed from New York, with Eight thou- 
sand troops on board said to be for the West Indies. I was at Genl. 
Maxwells Quarters yesterday Evening, he had no such Intelligence 
but all the Intelligence from N York agree that every [pre]paration 
is making there for an Embarkation. 

With Great Affection & Sincereity 

I am ever yours 

[Signature missing.]' 

Colonel Abeel's report was embodied in a somewhat 
crude map showing the territory which may be roughly 
described as extending from Millburn to Basking Ridge, and 
from Springfield to Morristown, though dealing chiefly with 
the country lying on the east side of the Passaic River above 
Chatham. An explanatory note was appended which reads 
as follows: 

Remarks: 

As no Proper Ground was to be found between Chatham and 
Boon Town, his Lordship & myself proceeded from Chatham down 
to Van Arsdall's Tavern near Springfield-' and proceeded along the 
foot of the mountain to Quibble Town Gap, & found many good 
places for the Army to encamp, but as the encampment would be 
too much exposed, we crossed the mountain thro' Quibble Town 
Gap in between the first & second mountain where we find a most 

'Greene MSS., II, 60. 

' Shown at the corner of the road to Westfield, opposite the present 
hotel in Springfield. 



Selection of a Camp-Ground 299 

Beautiful place for the whole Army to encamp Wood & Water 
being plenty the Ground dry, roads leading through the mountain 
to Morris Town, Basken Ridge and Middlebrook, a Number of 
houses are in between the mountains some pretty good, on the left 
lays Chatham where many houses are that would do for head Quar- 
ters, but in that Case it will be necessary to Station a Brigade 
on the mountain marked A.' there is plenty of Room in between 
those mountains for six or eight divisions & a large space may be 
left between them, a fine country for Forrage is in front of the first 
mountain towards Elizabeth Town & over the Second Mountain 
is a most Beautiful rich Vale between that and Long Hill, abound- 
ing with fine meadows and Plenty of Forrage the mountain in the 
Rear of the 2d mountain has scarcely any Wood as his Lordship 
& myself traversed it for many miles, in Short it far exceeds the 
encampment at Middle Brook the Road between the two mountains 
is very good and never Deep as it is hard Gravel and not very Rockey, 
many more Roads then are Pointed out in this Sketch lead from 
the Intended Incampment to Morris Town, Turkey, Baskenridge, 
Quibble Town, Middle & Bound Brook & Raritan, Elizabeth Town, 
Rahway, Woodbridge, &c. a fine Road leads to Bryant's between 
Chatham and Springfield,- as it was very cold when I made this 
draft I hope the Genl. will excuse its not being done better. 

James Abeel 
D. Q. M. G. 
Morris Town, Novr. 1779. 

It will be necessary to Build three or four Block Houses at each 
Gap in the first mountain & Station a Regt. or Company at each, 
they will overlook all the Country round about & prevent a surprise, 
the Bridges on Pissaick will want repairing a Little and also some 
part of the Road, this may be soon done. 

The map was accompanied by the following letter: 

„ Morris Town Thursday 10th Novr 1779. 

Sir: 

According to your desire I have been & reviewed the Ground 

' The mountain near Millburn. 

' Bryant's tavern shown at the corner of the Morris Turnpike and the 
lane which now forms ihe eastern boundary of Summit. 



300 History of Chatham 

between Bounton and Baskin Ridge but cou'd find no proper 
Ground for an Incainpment at Long Hill and so on to Chatham 
but find in between the first & second Mountain as you will find 
described in the Rough Sketch here inclosed a most BeautifuU Place 
for an Incampment abounding with Wood Water and every other 
necessary to make it agreeable, his Lordship & myself think it 
preferable to the last Incampment at Aliddle Brook, as I have made 
my remarks on the Sketch inclosed I need not say more, his Lord- 
ship I dare say has been very Particular in his Letter as he knows 
the Country well. I am preparing everything necessary as fast as 
possible & hope to have everything ready to be on the Ground when 
called for I shall make use of every exertion in my power. 

I am with esteem, Sr, 

Yr Most Hble Servt 

Jas Abeel, D Q M G 

N B I will send out & Provide some Fowls Turkeys Potatoes 
&c for the Genl in time. 

Major Genl Greene.^ 

The locality finally decided upon lay about four miles 
southwest of Morristown on the road to Basking Ridge; and 
early in December the troops arrived and encamped there. 
The army at that time consisted of Maxwell's New Jersey 
brigade, Stark's New Hampshire brigade, Clinton's New- 
York brigade. Hand's brigade, two brigades of Connecticut, 
two of Pennsylvania and two of Maryland; together with 
Knox's brigade composed of two regiments of artillery and 
one of artificers, having besides the light mounted field pieces 
several larger and heavier guns for siege purposes." A few 
of the northern regiments approached Morristown by way 
of Pompton and Whippany, but the greater part of the army 
marched over the Short Hills and through Chatham and 
Madison on their way to camp. The latter division was 

'Greene MSS., HI, I, in library of the American Philosophical Societ>\ 
'Sherman's Historic Morristown, Chapters XV, XVI. 



Arrival of the Armv 301 

unfortunately preceded by a rumor that the entire army had 
been defeated in a recent battle, and was in precipitate 
retreat, with the enemy in close pursuit.' The consternation 
of the people of Chatham upon hearing this report was only 
equalled by their relief upon ascertaining its falsity. 

Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle gives a realistic description of the 
passage of these troops: the companies of armed pioneers 
with their axes and other implements for preparing the 
way for the army; the squads of officers on horseback; the 
companies and battalions of soldiers on foot; the artillery, 
and the long trains of baggage wagons, drawn by horses 
and oxen; with drums beating, flags flying, and the earth at 
times shaking under the heavy roll of the artillery and 
wagons and the tramp of horses. The army reached Madi- 
son at dusk and encamped there for the night. Their tents 
were pitched close together on both sides of King's Road, 
forming a double line which extended from the Presby- 
terian cemetery to the present corner of Seaman Street. 
The camp-fires were kept burning throughout the night; 
and in the morning after an early breakfast, the troops 
marched on to Morristown.- 

The winter of 1779-80 was one of exceptional severity, 
and the sufferings of the soldiers at Morristown, who were 
destitute of sufficient food and clothing, equalled the priva- 
tions they had borne during the memorable winter at Valley 
Forge. Beginning early in November and continuing until 
March, snowstorms of great violence occurred in rapid suc- 
cession. The waters surrounding the city of New York, and 
even the lower bay, were covered by a solid and unbroken 
sheet of ice, upon which the British cavalry and artillery 
were able to cross to Staten Island and New Jersey with 
greater facility than they could travel on land. The worst 
storm of the entire Revolutionary period was experienced on 

'William P. Tuttle in The Spirit of '76. March, 1900. 
'Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 330. 



302 History of Chatham 

January 3rd, when the snow fell in great quantities, and in 
many places was blown by the wind into drifts ten and twelve 
feet in height.' 

So greatly were the roads obstructed by the heavy fall 
of snow that, for several days, access to the encampment, 
even from Morristown and Menham, was practically im- 
possible r provisions for the army could not be obtained, 
and the troops were brought face to face with starvation. 
At one time the soldiers ate every kind of horse-food except 
hay; — buckwheat, common wheat, rye and corn composing 
the meal from which they made their bread. Washington 
was obliged to call upon the magistrates in the several coun- 
ties of the State to gather provisions for the troops, alloting 
to each county a certain proportion of flour and grain, and a 
certain number of cattle, to be delivered to the arrny at stated 
periods; and intimating that if the supplies were not forth- 
coming, they would be forcibly requisitioned. But a resort 
to extreme measures proved unnecessary; for as soon as the 
plight of the soldiers became generally known, the sympa- 
thies of the people were aroused, and they responded 
promptly and cheerfully to Washington's demands, many 
counties furnishing supplies in excess of the quantity 
specified.' One of the magistrates to whom the com- 
mander-in-chief applied in this emergency was Stephen 
Day of Chatham, who himself donated an entire beef to 

the army.'' 

Dr. James Thatcher, in his Military Journal, thus 
describes the hardships of the troops: 

The weather for several days has been remarkably cold and 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 478; Mellick's The Story of an Old Farm, 514. 
A British spy, upon his return to New York from Morristown, reported: 
"The snow road from Morris Town to Elizabeth Town well beaten — very 
deep out of it, some places drifted to the height of four feet." — Neiv York 
Colonial Documrnts, I'lII, yS;. 

= Harper's Magazine, XVHI, 300. 

° Barber's New Jersey Historical Collections, 389 n. 

* Lewis Hist. Pub. Company's Morris County, 1, 295. 



Severity of the Winter 303 

stormy. On the 3d instant, we experienced one of the most tremen- 
dous snow storms ever remembered ; no man could endure its vio- 
lence many minutes without danger of his life. Several marquees 
were torn asunder and blown down over the officers' heads in the 
night, and some of the soldiers were actually covered while in their 

tents, and buried like sheep under the snow The snow 

is now from four to six feet deep, which so obstructs the roads as 
to prevent our receiving a supply of provisions. For the last ten 
days we have received but two pounds of meat a man, and we are 
frequently for six or eight days entirely destitute of meat, and then 
as long without bread. The consequence is, the soldiers are so 
enfeebled from hunger and cold, as to be almost unable to perform 

their militar>- duty, or labor in constructing their huts 

His Excellency, it is understood, despairing of supplies from the 
Commissary General, has made application to the magistrates of the 
state of New Jersey for assistance in procuring provisions. This 
expedient has been attended with the happiest success. It is honor- 
able to the magistrates and people of Jersey, that they have cheer- 
fully complied with the requisition, and furnished for the present 
an ample supply, and have thus probably saved the army from de- 
struction. 

Again, in March, he writes : 

The present winter is the most severe and distressing which we 
have ever experienced. An immense body of snow remains on the 
ground. Our soldiers are in a wretched condition for the want of 
clothes, blankets, and shoes; and these calamitous circumstances are 
accompanied by a want of provisions. It has several times happened 
that the troops were reduced to one-half, or to one-quarter allow- 
ance, and some days have passed without any meat or bread being 
delivered out. 

It was discovered by investigation at Philadelphia that 
the frost had penetrated the ground to a depth of three feet 
seven and a half inches.' On March 18th, Washington 
wrote to Lafayette from Morristown: 

Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XXVII, 50. 



304 History of Chatham 

The oldest people now living in this country do not remember 
so hard a winter as the one we are now emerging from. In a word, 
the severity of the frost exceeded anything of the kind that had e\ er 
been experienced in this climate before.' 

During the winter of 1779-80 the advance guard of the 
army was posted at Springfield, Instead of being placed at 
Chatham as was done in 1777. The latter village, there- 
fore, was comparatively bare of troops, though it continued 
to be a station of the local militia, and in all probability a 
guard was constantly maintained at the bridge. 

In January the people of Chatham witnessed the setting 
out of Lord Stirling's expedition against Staten Island; but 
as his plan was guarded with the greatest secrecy, they 
probably were not aware of the significance of the move- 
ment. The ease with which Staten Island could be reached 
by means of the ice in the sound, which formed a natural 
bridge from shore to shore, and was amply strong enough 
to bear a large body of troops, determined Washington, 
notwithstanding the depleted condition of his forces, to 
attempt a surprise attack upon the enemy's outposts. A 
large number of sleighs — said to have been about 500 — 
were collected for the transportation of the troops with their 
ammunition, tools, rations, &c., and on the 14th of January 
Lord Stirling set out from Morristown with approximately 
1500 men, both infantry and artillery. Every effort was 
made to conceal his design, as he depended for success 
upon surprising the enemy. The expedition passed through 
Chatham during the afternoon. 

At Elizabeth Stirling was joined by General William 
Irvine with his detachment, who had been sent on the 9th of 
January to reconnoiter the enemy's position, and by Colonel 
Dayton's regiment of New Jersey troops, thus Increasing his 
force to about 2500 men. Soon after midnight on the 15th 

' Baker's Itinerary of Washington, I, 174. 



Attk.mpt to Capture Washington 305 

he crossed to Staten Island; but. despite the caution which 
had been observed, the British had received warning of the 
raid, and were found to be on the alert. Perceiving that 
they were strongly fortified and intrenched behind an abattis 
of snow, Stirling did not risk an attack, but retired about 
daybreak, having captured a i'e^^■ prisoners and received 
several deserters. The casualties on each side were trifling, 
but about 500 of the Americans were frostbitten, and all 
suffered severely from the cold. The expedition not only 
proved a failure, but was the cause of retaliatory raids by 
the British upon Newark and Elizabeth.' 

Barber and Howe, in their Historical Collections of 
New Jersey, record the tradition that when Washington and 
his army lay at Morristown in the "hard winter" of 1780, a 
party of British cavalry left Xew York for the purpose of 
takmg him prisoner. They proceeded by way of Elizabeth. 
During the night they were overtaken by a violent storm of 
hail, snow and rain, that froze as it fell, covering the 
ground with a thick crust which cut their horses" ankles, and 
so impeded their progress that at dawn they had advanced 
no farther than Bottle Hill, now Madison; and as their 
object could not be successfully carried out in broad day- 
light, they were forced to abandon the enterprise and return 
to New York. Mistrusting the loyalty of the guide, who 
was an American spy, they placed him in the centre of a 
hollow square, and rode with drawn sabres. 

The mention of Elizabeth and Bottle Hill indicates that 
the party passed through Chatham. It is not claimed 
by Barber and Howe that this anecdote is more than a 
tradition; but Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle, writing at a later date, 
gives it as an authentic fact, and says that when the circum- 
stance became generally known, it created a great sensation, 

Rl- J^'it'"!}.^' -'•J^'°'""tf'^'s (Loyalists) in the Revolution, 18; Hatfield's 
Elizabeth, 478-9; Sherman's Historic Morristown, 346; Thatcher's Mili! 
tur\ Journal, I.j4. 



3o6 History of Chatham 

not only among the troops, but throughout the entire 
countryside.* 

It is probable that some such attempt was actually 
made, for it is referred to by various writers, among them 
being Thomas Jones, a tory resident of New York during 
the War of Independence, who mentions the incident in his 
History of New York in the Revolution. Though he writes 
from the loyalist point of view. Judge Jones takes frequent 
occasion to criticize the shortcomings of the British com- 
manders, and to comment unfavorably upon the lack of suc- 
cess which often marked their efforts; and he describes the 
attempt to capture Washington in his usual caustic style. 

In the winter of this year [he writes] information was received 
at New York, that Washington's quarters were in a house at Mor- 
ristown at some distance from the huts occupied by the rebel army. 
The snow was very deep, the winter prodigiously cold, and as no 
danger was apprehended, his guards were trifling. Clinton thought 
the capture of Washington would put an end to the rebellion. I 
believe it would, as no other person could have kept such a hetero- 
geneous army, as the rebel ont- then consisted of, together. Four hun- 
dred horse were dispatched for that purpose. This alert turned out 
as all others did. It failed. The guides got frightened, the party 
bewildered, they lost the road, and after a cold, tedious and fatiguing 
excursion of 24 hours, without ever seeing a rebel, returned to New 
York all frost bitten. This mancEvre was laughed at by the rebel 
army, derided by the militia, and cursed by the Loyalists. Thus 
ended this famous alert, an alert which was to have ended the war, 
(as Clinton supposed.) But God knows, through the stupidity or 
wickedness of our Commanders in Chief, all our alerts, battles and 
seiges, during the whole war, (a very few excepted) met with the 
same fate, and ended in the same manner. - 

The letter which follows, written by Colonel James 
Abeel to one of Washington's aides-de-camp, gives some 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 331. 
'Jones's New York in the Revolution, I, 318. 



Attempt to Capture Washington 307 

particulars of an attempt by the British to capture the com- 
mander-in-chief on February 10, 1780; and the statement 
that the advance of the enemy was impeded by snow, leads 
us to thinic that this was the enterprise referred to by 
Barber and Howe. Colonel Abeel does not intimate, how- 
ever, that the invaders succeeded in reaching Bottle Hill, or 
in penetrating any part of Morris County. 

The following Intelligence was given me this day by a Person 
from Elisabeth Town & I believe may be depended on as fact 
Vizt:— 

That a Party of between 4 & 500 Horse and three thousand foot 
under the Command of Genl Gray crossed Powlis Hook on Thurs- 
day last and marched as far as the West end of Coll Schuylers 
Swamp and intended to march on to Morris Town by Way of the 
Notch, the light Horse were to endeavour to bring off his Excel- 
lency, & the foot to take the Rout towards Chatham to support the 
horse if they succeeded in their enterprize and to bring off a Number 
of Cattle belonging to the Publick in their Rout which are at Horse 
Neck. Genl Skinner & Coll Sterling to cross with about 2000 Men 
at Elizabeth Town & Coil Simcoe with 300 Horse & some foot to 
cross at Raway to draw our attention that way, but the Snow being 
so deep in the Swamp that Gen! Gray cou'd not advance a Signal 
by 5 Rockets was given to Genl Skinner that it was not possible to 
advance & by Skinner with 5 Rockets from the Bridge at Elizth 
Town to Simco, which occasioned their return to Staten Island & 
the other Places they crossed. 10 or 12 P of Artiliry lay in readi- 
ness at Deckers Ferry to be transported to De Harts Ferry. That 
all the Inhabitants on York & a part from Long Island were embod- 
ied & had reed Ammunition & Cloathing & were to guard the City, 
that 87 Sleds had Crossed from New York this day Week to Staten 
Island with Amunition & Provision, that the River was passable 
on the Ice from Powlis Hook to Long Island, that all or most of 
the British Troops were come from Long Island to New York & 
Staten Island, that 3000 Men were on Staten Island, he brought 
me three Papers but one has been taken away and the other two 
you will herewith receive. I make no doubt but his Excellencj' has 



3o8 



History of Chatham 



long ago had the Intelligence but [if] he shou'd not I now send it 

& am with respect Sr 

Your Most Hble Servt 

Tas. Abeel, D. Q. M. G. 
Sunday 13th Feby 1780' 

Shortly after the arrival of the army in this region, 
during the winter of 1779-80. occurred the romantic mar- 
riage of the Chevalier (afterwards Count) d'Anterroches, 
a prisoner of war in the hands of the Americans, and Miss 
Mary Vanderpool of Chatham.' 

Joseph Louis d'Anterroches was a scion of a 
noble family in the south of France, the genealogical 
records of which are said to extend back to the twelfth 
century, revealing in each generation men who took, a leading 
part (chiefly in the line of military service) in many of the 

great events of F'rench his- 
tory. The seat of the 
family was the Chateau dc 
I'Audubertie at Bas Limou- 
sin, near Tulle, in the De- 
partment of La Correze, 
and there Joseph Louis 
was born on August 25, 
1753, the son of Jean 
Pierre Count d'Anterroches 
and Lady Jeanne Francoise 
Teissier de Charnac Count- 
ess d'.Anterroches; the lat- 
ter a near relative (prob- 
ably a cousin) of Madame 




COt^NT D'ANTEKROrilES'S DArOHTEK 
(MItS ROr.EKS) 



'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 35, 370. 

' This international love story is delightfully told by Mrs. Emeline G. 
Pierson in Leslie's Monthly Magazine for August, 1893, from data sup- 
plied by Count d'Anterroch'es's daughter, Mrs. Warren Rogers. The facts 
contained in the te.xt have been freely drawn from that article; and the 
author further acknowledges his indebtedness to Warren R. Dix, of Eliza- 
beth, N. J., a great-grandson of Count d'.Anterroches, for additional infor- 
mation of more than passing interest. 




JOSEPH LOUIS d'antERROCHES 



D'Anterroches Joins the Army 



309 



de Lafayette. The young chevalier naturally inherited the 
martial spirit of his soldier-ancestors, and his fondest ambi- 
tion was to enter the army; but, being a younger son, his 
father designed him for the church, and insisted that his 
studies should be directed to that end. Upon attaining the 
proper age, he was accordingly sent to the home of his 
uncle, Alexander Csesar d'Anterroches, Bishop of Condon, 
under whose tutelage he was prepared for a clerical life; 
but he was firmly impressed with the belief that he had no 
fitness nor calling for the priesthood; and in 1776, before 
his studies were concluded, he ran away, went to England, 
and enlisted as a "gentleman volunteer" in the Sixty-second 
regiment of infantry; his choice of a foreign country as a 
field for his military career probably indicating his appre- 
hension that if he were found in the army of France, his fam- 
ily would possess sufficient 
influence to bring about his 
discharge. His aristocratic 
father, upon ascertaining 
his whereabouts, would not 
suffer him to serve as a 
private, but bought him 
a commission as ensign, 
corresponding to second 
lieutenant in our service, at 
a cost which is said to ha\e 
approximated £400. As he 
signed the roll with his sur- 
name only, according to the 
usual custom of the European nobility, his Christian name 
does not appear on the British army lists, and he was known 
simply as "Mr." d'Anterroches. 

In 1777 the Sixty-second regiment was ordered to Amer- 
ica, where it formed a part of Burgoyne's army which sur- 
rendered at Saratoga. After his capture by the Americans, 




THE BISHOP-UNCLE. 



3IO 



History of Chatham 




JOSEPH ALEXANDER. COUNT D ANTEKftOCHM, 

HEAD OF THE FAMILY, 1776 



D'Anterroches obtained 
permission to write to 
Lafayette, informing h i s 
distinguished relative of 
his unfortunate plight; 
and through the interest 
and influence of the mar- 
quis he was released on 
parole. Nothing is known 
concerning the terms of his 
parole, or of his movements 
between the surrender at 
Saratoga in 1777 and his 
appearance at Chatham in 
1780; but as it is probable 
that considerable time 
elapsed before he was given an opportunity of writing to 
his kinsman, and that a further delay occurred before his 
release could be effected, there can be little doubt that a large 
part of the interval was spent in captivity with the con- 
vention troops at Charlestown, Mass., and later at Char- 
lottesville, Va.' 

Family tradition is that after his release he became an 

'Among the papers of General Gates in the library of the New York 
Historical Society we find a letter from Lafayette to Gates, written at Camp 
near Valley Forge, April 10, 1778, and containing the following paragraph 
which may possibly refer to D'Anterroches: 

"There is also at Y(.rk a gentleman of my family who had been left 
sick in Carolina, and by the neglect of some I need not to mention was 
never sent for till this time, he has been excepted from the general rule 
of [illegible] the French officers sent by Mr. Deane as he has been con- 
sidered as one in my family what in fact he is. he was to be a captain 
eighteen months ago, and I do not ask from Congress any particular thing 
for him but what they will judge proper." — Gates Papers, Box g. 

On December 23, 1779, Washington wrote from Morristown to John 
Beatty, Commissary General of Prisoners: "Your letter of this date to 
Mr. Harrison has been laid before me. On account of the very distressed 
situation of Mons. d'Antroche as represented by you, I have no objection 
to your permitting him to go to Netv York on parole to return when 
called for. If he can effect his absolute exchange for the Officer entitled 
in regular course, It will be agreeable to me." — IVashington Papers in 
Library of Congress, B.X., pt. 2, 4QI, 



Courtship of D'Anterroches 311 

aide-de-camp on the staff of Lafayette; but it is inconceivable 
that an officer of the British army would tender his services 
to England's enemies and fight against his erstwhile com- 
rades. As a stranger in a strange land, however, he would 
naturally attach himself to his relative's official family, and 
while riding about with the marquis he might easily be mis- 
taken for a staff officer; but he was not so occupied at the 
time of his arrival at Chatham, for Lafayette spent the 
winter of 1780 in France. His name remained on the 
British army lists until 1787; but this fact does not prove 
his continuance in the service: it may simply indicate his 
neglect to tender his resignation at an earlier date. 

Referring again to family tradition, we learn that the 
chevalier first met Miss Mary Vanderpool on or near the 
bridge over the Passaic River, while he was riding through 
Chatham with a party of American officers. Captivated by 
her beauty, he immediately lost his heart, and was not long 
in ascertaining her name and residence, and presenting him- 
self as a suitor. 

"Polly," as she was invariably called, was the daughter 
of David Vanderpool, a tanner and currier by trade, and a 
soldier in the New Jersey militia, whose great-great-grand- 
father had come from Holland. She was born August 7, 
1758, the eldest of a family of six children. Her father was 
the owner of a large old-fashioned farm-house, standing 
upon the property still owned by his descendants, on the 
south side of the turnpike just east of the river ; the house oc- 
cupying the approximate site of the present dwelling, though 
somewhat nearer the road. It was a frame building, two 
stories in height, with two windows on each side of the front 
door, and a covered porch with a seat on either side. A 
flight of sixteen or eighteen steps led from the door-yard 
down to the roadway, which, at that place, is much lower 
than the adjacent land. About a hundred years after the 
time of which we write, the remains of his tan-vats Were 



312 History of Chatham 

discovered a short distance below the surface of the ground, 
on the easterly side of the brook which crosses the property, 
and a few rods from the turnpike. 

As a matter of convenience when signing his name, 
David often shortened it to V. D. Pool — a custom which 
obtains to this day in Holland — and in the course of time 
even this abbreviation was abandoned for the simple "Pool." 
He was enrolled for military duty in the name of David 
Pool, and during his declining years he was familiarly known 
as "Old Pop Pool" throughout the village. 

David Vanderpool is said to have been a captain in 
the Revolutionary army, but the assertion cannot be proven 
by the military records. No official mention of his having 
served as an officer has come to light, and in Stryker's 
Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolution he 
appears simply as a private of Essex County militia; al- 
though General Stryker, when consulted upon this point, said 
that such omission is not conclusive, because the New Jersey 
records relating to the Revolutionary War are extremely 
Imperfect. The only documentary evidence of David's 
military rank consists of the certificate of Polly's marriage 
at the French Legation In New York, which refers to her 
father as formerly captain in the service of the United 
States; and as the certificate was prepared with great care 
as to details, containing a full recital of all the circumstances 
of the marriage, and was sent to France for filing in order to 
make title to lands, it was evidently regarded as a document 
of great Importance, and would not be likely to contain a 
false statement. David's grandchildren, in conversation 
with him and his wife, were often told that he had been a 
captain In the Revolution, and had held that rank in the 
battle of Springfield; and the fact that he had a sword which 
was preserved in the family for many years after his death, 
and which was said to have been presented to him by the 
men of his company, adds weight to the assertion that he 



Parental Opposition 313 

held a commission. The sword was described as a very 
elegant and costly weapon, set off with ornamentations of 
elaborate design; and it may have been one of the swords 
taken from the captured British army at Saratoga, which 
were delivered in charge to Major Tallmadge while he was 
stationed at Chatham in 1778. 

Captain Vanderpool strongly objected to the proposed 
alliance between his daughter and the young chevalier. He 
positively forbade Polly to marry "that d d French- 
man," and assumed so uncompromising an attitude that the 
heart-broken lover took to his bed, turned his face to the 
wall, and vowed he would die. Family tradition assigns the 
chevalier's nationality as the sole reason for this opposition, 
but it is far more probable that his connection with the 
British army was the cause of the difficulty. Party feeling 
at that period ran very high. The country was overrun with 
spies, by whom information of the most vital importance 
was often conveyed to the enemy, and everyone whose ante- 
cedents were not known to be above criticism was under sus- 
picion. It is by no means improbable that D'Anterroches 
was regarded by the patriots in general with distrust and 
aversion, and the opinion held that, notwithstanding his 
endorsement by Lafayette, he should be more closely con- 
fined. It may readily he surmised that to David Vander- 
pool, who was engaged in fighting his country's battles in 
company with his friends and neighbors, whose respect and 
esteem he desired to retain, the thought of a marriage be- 
tween a member of his family and one of the enemies of 
his country was extremely repugnant. It is more than likely 
that Polly was twitted by her acquaintances about her affec- 
tion for a British officer, and that for these reasons she 
and her family endeavored to gloss over the fact that the 
chevalier was a prisoner of war, and to emphasize his re- 
lationship to Lafayette; allowing the impression to be 
formed that he was an aide-de-camp of the marquis, and that 



314 History of Chatham 

her parent's disapproval of the marriage was grounded 
solely upon the bridegroom's foreign birth. 

Whether the stern father's prejudice was eventually 
overcome is perhaps doubtful; but it is certain that if the 
parental consent was wanting, the young couple managed 
without it, and on the 30th of January, 1780, they were 
united in marriage at the parsonage in Madison by the Rev. 
Ebenezer Bradford, pastor of the Presbyterian church at 
that place, whose parish included Chatham. Polly often 
visited the old parsonage in after years, saying that she was 
greatly attached to the house by reason of its pleasant 
associations. The wedding ceremony was quiet and simple: 
the festive gathering common to such occasions was pre- 
cluded by the severity of the weather and the unsettled con- 
dition of the country; and a fine wedding gown for the bride 
was lacking, for New York was in the hands of the enemy, 
and materials for its manufacture could not be obtained. 
But an elegant trousseau was afterwards sent to Polly by her 
husband's parents, which compensated for the want of a 
more elaborate costume on the occasion of the wedding. 

The simple ceremony at Madison was not considered 
a sufficient compliance with the marriage laws of France; 
and seven years later a second ceremony was performed, 
according to the rites of the Roman Catholic church, in the 
chapel of the French Legation at New York. 

The chevalier and his bride first established a home 
in Easton, Pa. Why that town was selected as a place of 
residence does not appear; but it is probable that when 
D'Anterroches expressed a wish to cease traveling about 
with the army as a paroled prisoner, and to retire to civil 
life, the military authorities gave him permission to reside 
in Easton as a place far removed from the scene of conflict, 
where, if he were secretly disposed to render assistance to 
the British, he would find difficulty in gathering information 
or in communicating it to the enemy. 



D'Anterroches Resides at Elizabeth 315 

In 1784, when the Revolution was ended and peace was 
restored, he removed with his family to Elizabeth, where a 
number of his countrymen resided, and became in the course 
of time the head of the French colony in that city. In later 
years he served in the United States army, taking a promi- 
nent part in suppressing the Whiskey Insurrection in Penn- 
sylvania; and before leaving the service had been advanced 
to the rank of major of cavalry. 



.J.''' 










HOME OF PIERRE AND JEANNE D ANTERROCHES, ELIZABETH, N. J. 
(Courtesy of Leslie's Monthly.) 

CHILDREN OF JOSEPH & MARY D'ANTERROCHES. 

Jean Pierre: born July 14, 1781, died December 24, 1854: 
married, November 20, 1800, Abigail Marsh of Rahway, N. J., who 
was bom August 18, 1779, died April 14, 1825. 

Jeanne Francoise: born January 31, 1783, died June 10, 
1862; married, April 5, 1801, John De Hart. 

Marie Alexandrine: born August 29, 1785; married 

Cook. 

Paul Joseph (Lafayette's namesake): born October 5, 1787, 
went to France in 1806, and the next year married his cousin, IVLarie 



3i6 History of Chatham 

Judith Josephine, daughter of Jean Blaize Viscount d'Anterroches. 
Resided at Puydarnac, Department of La Correze. 

Marie Adrienne Francoise: born July 12, 1789; died Octo- 
ber 12, 1800. She was named Adrienne for Mme. Lafayette. 

Marie Erneste Henriette: born September 24, 1791, died 
January 4, 1873; married, May 26, 1817, Joseph Lyon, of London, 
England, who was born in 1779 and died December 16, 1839. 

Julie Francoise Gabrielle: born March 15, 1794, died 
June 22, 1888; married, (1) April 28, 1811, Edward Griffith, a na- 
tive of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, who died 
January 20, 1820; (2) August 29, 1821, Warren Rogers, of New 
York, who died in 1843. 

Francois de Loyac: born May 6, 1796, died in 1874; mar- 
ried, (1) Mary Lewis; (2) Amelia ; (3) Dora Broome; (4) 

Annie Hines. 

Joseph Louis: born July 15, 1799; died September 18, 1819, 
in New Orleans, La. 

Alexandre: born in December 13, 1801. 

In 1789, while the chevalier was visiting his parents 
in France, his little son Pierre was presented at the court 
of Louis XVL, and the boy's costume, patterned after the 
dress uniform of a FVench officer, is preserved in the family 
as an heirloom. 

Upon the death of his father and elder brother, the 
chevalier succeeded to the title of Count d'Anterroches, 
but did not live long to enjoy the honor. He was then in 
France on a second visit to his parents. After his father's 
decease, and before he could arrange his affairs and return 
to America, he himself fell sick and died in his native land 
on January 17, 18 14, at the age of sixty-one. 

Polly Vanderpool d'Anterroches lived in Elizabeth 
and New York to the advanced age of eighty-six. When 
Lafayette visited this country in 1824 he received her and 



Di'.AiH OF Mary D'Antf.rrochf.s 



317 



her children at a private interview, and embraced them with 
the affection of a relative. She died in New York July 31, 
1844, and was buried in St. John's churchyard at Elizabeth. 



TheGrawof 

Mary 

who dtfd JiJr3lI6M Ajtda^/tar: 
w.do'K' of 

Joseph Louis 
Count D'Auterroches 



M 










wKo d.eimFfar.c* Jan !7 Ifll* 
AjiJ oljo l»o of thtir children 

Adrianne.4.rfO(f aieoQAjedi^j^rt 



The Grave of 
Jd'.n Peter DAuterrocte 

who died 

Dec. 24. 1854 

Ag«d 70y»«rj 



: ;aaw:iii(%pi^ii..;T;u:.';^(i^^ 



ii?'M\.-.«";:7^.i;;-;;^i,y;j, 







In Memory of 

His Wife 
Abigail Marah 



A?«d 46XcaT-j 



?!(«/.«(( 






The Grave of 

John De Hart 

who died 
Ag«d88>^arjmdGno3 I 



And ofhia wife 

Jdne DAuterroches | 

who died 
June 10, 1SS2 






CHAPTER XIV 

Insubordination of the Troops at Morristown — Knyphausen invades 
New Jersey — Washington moves from Morristown to Chatham 
— He occupies the Short Hills before Knyphausen's Arrival — 
The British reach Springfield — They burn the Village of Con- 
necticut Farms — They retreat to Elizabethtown Point — Clinton 
attempts to reach Morristown — Encounters a stubborn Resist- 
ance at Springfield — Abandons the Enterprise — Wayne moves 
to Chatham — Court-martial of Doctor Shippen. 

THE severity of the winter of 1779-80 proved a great 
hindrance to the movements of both armies, and the 
operations of the British at New York against the State of 
New Jersey were hmited to an occasional marauding ex- 
pedition in the direction of Newark and Ehzabeth; but with 
the approach of spring, and the coming of milder weather, 
it was anticipated that the enemy would resume their former 
activities, and that their raids would be succeeded by inroads 
of a more determined and serious character. For this 
reason the New Jersey brigade under General Maxwell was 
detached from the army at Morristown on the 14th of May, 
and ordered to take post at Elizabeth to protect that city 
and its immediate neighborhood. The passage of these 
troops through Chatham was thus commented upon by the 
New Jersey Journal: 

Chatham, May 17. Last Sunday passed through this place the 
Jersey Brigade on their way to Elizabeth Town where they are to 
be stationed. They made a martial appearance, and we were agree- 
ably surprised to find them so very strong. 

The privations of the troops encamped at Morristown 
did not terminate with the breaking up of the winter, but 



Mutiny of the Connecticut Troops 319 

continued far into the spring; and the patriot soldiers, who 
had endured with the most heroic fortitude the sufferings 
of the preceding months, now found their patience giving 
way. Mutterings of discontent were followed by signs of 
insubordination, until, on May 25th, the Connecticut troops 
mutinied, and declared their intention of returning to their 
homes, or of "gaining subsistence at the point of the 
bayonet." Their chief ground of complaint, aside from the 
universal one of lack of provisions, was that their pay was 
long overdue, and that, owing to the great depreciation of 
the Continental currency, their money, when received, was of 
little value. With some difficulty the mutiny was put down, 
a few of the ringleaders being placed under arrest; but the 
affair caused General Washington the greatest anxiety and 
annoyance/ 

The tories and British spies lost no time in carrying 
news of the revolt to New York. Lieutenant-General Baron 
von Knyphausen, who commanded the troops in that city 
during Sir Henry Clinton's absence in the South, was given 
a greatly exaggerated account of the mutiny, being assured 
that the whole Continental army at Morristown was in- 
subordinate, and that practically the entire population of 
northern New Jersey had become so weary of the struggle 
for independence that great numbers of civilians would 
eagerly join the British if offered adequate protection. Com- 
pletely misled by these representations, Kynphausen believed 
that an excellent opportunity was now afforded, by a sudden 
and vigorous attack, to gain possession of Morristown, to 
destroy the stores and powder-mill at that place, and to 
annihilate, or at least to disperse, the American army — a 
masterstroke which in his opinion could have no other effect 
than to terminate the resistance of the patriots, and re- 
establish British sovereignty in this region. On the night of 
June 6, 1780, at the head of a large force of British and 

'Lossing's Washington, II, 669; Irving's Washington, IV, 42. 



320 History of Chatham 

Hessian troops — infantry, cavalry and artillery — he crossed 
to Staten Island and thence to Elizabethtown Point; his plan 
being to surprise Maxwell's brigade, which was known to 
be in that neighborhood, and, by a rapid march, to gain pos- 
session of the passes of the Short Hills, in which the strength 
of this part of the country lay. With the key of the situa- 
tion thus securely in his hands, he would await the arrival 
of reinforcements, and then push on to Morristown. 

The landing of the invaders was promptly discovered 
by the American outposts, who at once gave warning of the 
enemy's approach. The watchful sentinels on the crest of 
Hobart Hill between Springfield and Chatham quickly fired 
the beacon and discharged the alarm-gun, arousing the en- 
tire countryside. The farmer-soldiers seized their weapons 
and hastened to the repulse of the enemy; and Knyphausen 
was obliged to relinquish his plan of surprising Maxwell and 
gaining the Short Hills before the militia could assemble to 
aid in opposing his progress. 

CAPTAIN DAYTON TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Sir 

I am directed by Colo: Dayton to inform your excellency 
that the enemy landed this night at 12 oCloclc, from the best intelli- 
gence four or five thousand men & Twelve field pieces, & it is his con- 
jecture they intend to penetrate into the country. 

I am your excellys most hum. Sei-vt. 

Joxa: D.'vyton Copt. 

3rd. J. Regt. 
Near Eliza: Town 

past 1 oCIock Wednesday morn.' 

The news of this sudden invasion brought Washington's 
sojourn at Morristown to an abrupt conclusion. Drums beat 
to arms, the troops turned out and formed, and regiment 
after regiment marched away toward the field of battle. 
W^ashington wrote to Lord Stirling that the British were 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 38, 53. 



Washington Movi:s to Chatham 321 

advancing rapidly in considerable force, and that the alarm 
should be given and the militia collected; adding in a post- 
script: "The enemy were on the road from E. Town 
to Springfield — We shall move towards Chatham.'" At the 
same time Colonel Alexander Hamilton, one of Washing- 
ton's aides, wrote to Baron Steuben : 

Dr Baron 

I am commanded by The General to inform you that the enemy 
are out in considerable force and by the last advice were advancing 
this way. We are going to meet them. The General is just setting 
out for Chatham and will be happy to see you there. 

Yrs Respect'y 

A. Hamilton, 

UA r^ ADC 

Hd. (Jrs 

June 7. 80.- 

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO MAJOR TALBOT. 

Headqrs. Morris Town June 7th, 1780. 

Vi after 8 a. m. 
Sir 

I have this morning been informed that the Enemy landed 
last night in force at De Hart's point, near Elizabeth Town, and 
are advancing rapidly on the road to Springfield. I wish you to com- 
municate this intelligence to the Militia Officers in the vicinity of 
your post immediately that they may alarm the Country, and that 
You will march as expeditiously as You can, consistently with the 
Men's healths with the Detachment under your command & with 
all the Militia that will join You, for Chatham: keeping the Moun- 
tains below you on your left. You will send on some of the Militia 
Light Horse, or Messengers from time [to time] to Chatham in order 
to inform yourself of the advance and situation of the Enemy & also 
to advise me how far you are on your march. 
I am Sir Yr Most Obed St 

G W 

Major Talbot 

or Officer commandg the Detachmt at Paramus.^ 

^ Magazine of American History, HI, 499. 

"Steuben Papers in Library of the New Vorl; Historical Society. 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B. XI, pt. 2, 399. 



322 History of Chatham 

The order books of the period indicate that the troops 
left Morristown about 7 A.M. on Wednesday, the 7th of 
June, and, advancing without a pause, arrived at the Short 
Hills on the same day; but Washington himself halted for a 
limited time when Chatham was reached. This is proven, 
first, bv the letters quoted above, which show his intention to 
make Chatham a place of rendezvous, and possibly the base 
of his contemplated operations; second, by the fact that Sir 
Henry Clinton, when writing to Lord Germain of Knyp- 
hausen's incursion, stated that Washington's army at the 
time was at Chatham with an advanced corps at Connecticut 
Farms:' and third, by an itinerary of Washington, contained 
in Volume III of the Magazine of American History, giving 
his whereabouts on almost every day during the war, as 
indicated by his orders, correspondence, &c., which places 
him on June 7, 1780, "at Headquarters, Chatham," — an 
assertion doubtless based upon some order or letter having 
that caption. The same statement is made in a similar 
itinerar%- of Washington compiled by the late Hugh Hast- 
ings, who for many years held the office of State Historian 
of New York, and published by him in Volume VIII of the 
Public Papers of Governor George Clinton. " 

The probabilities of the case favor the supposition that 
while the commander-in-chief stopped at Chatham to confer 
with other generals and to issue some necessary- orders, the 
army marched on to the hilly region east of the village; so 
that the defiles of the Short Hills were occupied before 
Kn)-phausen succeeded in reaching Springfield. Washing- 
ton's stay at Chatham was quite brief, however, for his pres- 
ence was urgently required nearer the scene of conflict; and 
it is doubtful if he remained here over night. In one of his 

'Ford's Writings of Washington, VIII, 321, n. 

'The Pennsylvania Evening Post of June 9, stated: "His Excellency gen. 
Washington's head quarters, it is said, are removed from Morristown to 
Chatham." 




REVOLL'TIOXARY M.VP OF CHATHAM 

By Robert Erskine. Geogrspher of the Contirenial Arn:y. 

From original in a large collection of Erskine's army maps now owned by the Xew \ ork HistiL-rical 
Society. Tbe above is a section of Map Xo, "5-A. entitied ""Rf:a,d from near Morristonm ;b_roasn 
Bonle Hill and Chatham towards SpringnehJ," 




REVOLUTIONARY MAP OF CHATHAM. 

By Riihert Erikine. Ciengiaplier .if the funtincntal Anlly. 

From Original in Liiirary of the New York Historical Society. 



Knyphausen's Advance 323 

letters he stated that upon receiving the news of the enemy's 

advance, he put the army in motion, and it reached the 

heights in the rear of Springfield on Wednesday afternoon.' 

He did not say that he himself arrived there on the same 

day, but that was perhaps implied. His headquarters on the 

Short Hills could not have been far from Chatham, if we 

may judge by a correction in the draft of a letter written by 

him to General Howe, the caption of which reads "Hd Qrs 

Shert-tWk-N^ftf-Qift* Heights above Springfield Tune 10 
1780. - I •' 

General Knyphausen pressed steadily forward to the 
village of Connecticut Farms, or Union as it is now called. 
He was assailed along his entire line of march by Colonel 
Dayton's regiment of the New Jersey brigade, and such of 
the militia as had time to gather, who, while unable to 
repulse him, so impeded his progress that, although he 
started from Elizabethtown Point before daybreak, he did 
not reach the neighborhood of Springfield — a distance of 
about eight miles — until late in the afternoon. 

At Connecticut Farms, where Dayton effected a junction 
with the remainder of the brigade under General Maxwell, 
the advance of the enemy was checked for over two hours; 
but the arrival of British reinforcements compelled the 
Americans to fall back, and they slowly retreated to a posi- 
tion on the Rahway River at Springfield, where they offered 
a still more determined resistance, the action being declared 
by Maxwell to be the closest he had seen in the war. The 
patriots were at length driven across the river into Spring- 
field, but Knyphausen perceived that he would not be able 
to enter the village before nightfall; and learning from 
American prisoners and deserters that Washington had 
reached the Short Hills, and could not be dislodged without 
great sacrifices, he decided to advance no farther. The 

'Sparks's Writings of Washington, VII, 75. 

' Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, B, XI, pt. 2, 411. 



324 History of Chatham 

village of Connecticut Farms was sacked and burned, and 
during the hours of darkness the enemy retreated to Eliza- 
bethtown Point, where 500 of their number intrenched them- 
selves, while the remainder crossed the sound to Staten 
Island.^ 

It is difficult to account for Knyphausen's conduct in 
thus weakly abandoning his design without venturing an 
engagement with the main American army. He left New 
York for the avowed purpose of attacking Washington, of 
capturing the military' stores at Morristown, and of dis- 
persing the Continental forces. His command, according to 
both American and English reports, consisted of 6,000 men, 
and greatly outnumbered any force which could be collected 
to oppose him. He suffered no reverse, and encountered no 
resistance except that offered by the New Jersey troops in 
what would be considered at the present time but little more 
than a series of skirmishes. Yet upon learning that Wash- 
ington was marching against him, and was prepared to offer 
him the opportunity' he sought of measuring his strength 
with that of the American commander, his courage seemed 
to fail, and as soon as darkness concealed his movements, he 
beat a hasty and ignoble retreat. 

He was of course surprised and disappointed to learn 
the falsity of the information he had received concerning the 
alleged insubordination of the Continental troops, and the 
waivering patriotism of the people; but this circumstance 
alone is not sufficient to account for his irresolution. The 
probable explanation is that he considered the success of the 
expedition to depend entirely upon his occupation of, and 
unopposed passage through, the hilly region between Spring- 
field and Chatham; for the knowledge that Washington had 
reached that point before him seems to have been the peans 
of deterring him from further efforts. He was doubtless 

' Hatfield's Elizabeth, Chap. XXH. 



Washington at Springfield 325 

told that if he attacked the Americans among the hills, his 
troops would be at a great disadvantage, even though his 
enemy were far inferior in number and equipment; and it is 
ven,- possible that the dangers and difficulties of an advance 
were magnified by the prisoners and deserters whom he ques- 
tioned, and even by the guides he employed. 

Dr. James Thatcher, who spent the winter in camp at 
Morristown, alludes in his Military Journal to the fact that 
on June 7th his brigade was ordered to Chatham in conse- 
quence of the enemy's movements; and he briefly describes 
the engagement at Connecticut Farms. Lieutenant John 
Shreve of the Second regiment, Xew Jersey Continental line, 
also refers to the invasion in his Personal Narrative. He 
writes; 

They [the British] returned to Elizabethtown losing many men. 
killed and wounded, and a sergeant, corporal and twelve men taken 
prisoners. I had the Camp Guard with twelve tories confined, and 
Gen. Ma.\^vell sent me to Chatham, a village three miles west of 
Springfield, with the tories and the English prisoners, where I 
remained about a week, and then took them to Morristown. put 
them in jail, and joined the regiment on the lines near where Gen- 
eral Knyphausen lay at Elizabethtown.^ 

Washington did not return to Morristown after the 
enemy retired, but remained encamped at the Short Hills as 
though awaiting a renewal of hostilities. Perceiving that 
a body of horse could be employed to good advantage in 
reconnoitring, and in checking the activir\- of the British 
cavalry in the neighborhood of Elizabeth, he caused his 
command to be reinforced about this time by "Light-Horse 
Harry" Lee's famous partisan legion. Dr. Thatcher, under 
date of June i ith, mentions in his Military Journal the 
arrival of this beautiful corps of light dragoons, the men 
in complete uniform and the horses very elegant and finely 

' Magazine of .■\raerican History, III, 571. 



326 History of Chatham 

disciplined. The doctor adds that Major Lee was said to 
be a man of great spirit and enterprise, and that much 
important service was expected of him. Upon reporting 
his arrival to the commander-in-chief, Lee received a 
friendly reply, which was dated at headquarters near Spring- 
field the I ith of June, and read as follows: 

Dear Sir, 

I have received your favor of this date. The spirit which 
has been exhibited by your corps gives me pleasure, and be 
assured, meets with my thanks and approbation. As your rapid 
progress must have fatigued the cavalry in some degree, I wish you 
for the present to take post somewhere in our rear. Perhaps Chat- 
ham, or its vicinity, is as well calculated to afford you forage as 
any other place. You will, however, when you have fixed upon the 
spot, be pleased by a line to point it out to me. I shall be glad to 
see you at my quarters tomorrow morning. 

I am, etc. etc. 

Go. Washington. 
To Major Henry Lce.^ 

Shortly after Knyphausen's incursion Sir Henry Clinton 
returned to New York from his successful campaign in South 
Carolina. Learning of his subordinate's humiliating failure 
to penetrate the country beyond the Short Hills, he at once 
decided that another attempt to reach Morristown should be 
made, and, to guard against a second fiasco, that he would 
lead the expedition in person. As a preliminary step, in 
order to draw Washington and his army away from the 
Short Hills, he embarked some soldiers in transports upon 
the Hudson River, as though preparing to attack West 
Point — a step which he had had under consideration, and 
which Washington had been led to expect. The American 
commander was deceived by this ruse; and, on June 21st, he 

' Sparks's Writings of Washington, VII, 77. 



Battle of Springfield 327 

broke camp, again passed through Chatham, and commenced 
a leisurely march northward, intending to keep pace with 
the enemy as they ascended the Hudson. He left Major- 
General Greene at the Short Hills to guard the road to Mqr- 
ristown, with a force of about 2,500 men, consisting of Max- 
well's brigade, Stark's brigade, Lee's dragoons, and a small 
body of local militia.' 

With Washington and the greater part of his army 
safely out of the way, Clinton landed at Elizabethtown Point 
before daybreak on the 23rd of June, with 5,000 infantry, a 
large body of cavalry, and from 15 to 20 pieces of artillery, 
and commenced his march toward Morristown. Again the 
alarm-gim and beacon-light upon Hobart Hill gave forth 
their warning, to be promptly repeated by corresponding 
signals upon the more distant peaks, while the militia gath- 
ered from every farm and village, formed companies at 
their various places of rendezvous, and marched to meet 
the foe. The latter, in the meantime, was advancing rapidly 
and in perfect order. Leaving Elizabeth at five in the morn- 
ing, and marching by way of Connecticut Farms, Clinton 
soon reached Springfield, where Greene engaged him in a 
vigorous battle. Up to that point the enemy seems to have 
encountered little, If any, opposition; and their advance was 
so rapid that the Morris County militia, despite the alacrity 
of their movements, did not arrive at Springfield until the 
most serious part of the conflict was over.- 

In a work of this kind, the scope of which is purely 
local, a detailed account of an engagement occurring in 
another town would be out of place; and the full descriptions 
of the battle of Springfield which are contained in the county 
histories and in the biographies of General Greene make 

' Sparks's Writings of Washington, VII, 83; Johnson's Nathaniel Greene, 
191 ; Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution I, 323. 

■ Irving's Washington, IV, 67; Barber's New Jersey Historical Collec- 
tions, 193; Jones's Ashbel Green, 118. 



328 History of Chatham 

further repetition unnecessary. Suffice it to say that the 
Americans offered a most stubborn resistance, which, in view 
of the disparity of numbers, was highly creditable to the 
generalship of the commander and the courage of the men. 
The principal action took place at the Rahway River, just 
east of Springfield, where Colonel Angell with about 200 
Rhode Island troops engaged the main column of the enemy 
for thirty or forty minutes; and when a flank movement 
compelled him to retire, he did so in good order, carrying 
his wounded with him. Superior numbers then enabled the 
British to press forward. They drove back the Americans, 
who made a stand in the center of the village, and followed 
them as far as the rising ground which was about half a 
mile west of the Revolutionary settlement, though within 
the limits of the present town of Springfield.' 

At this point, however, Clinton seemed to lose courage. 
Either because he was told that Washington had returned, 
and was trying to encircle his force, or because he was dis- 
mayed by the forbidding appearance of the Short Hills which 
now loomed before him, he did not pursue his advantage, 
but, following Knyphausen's example, he consigned the 
village to the flames, and hastily retreated to Elizabeth. He 
was pursued the entire distance by large parties of militia, 
who kept up a continuous and galling fire; but so precipitate 
was his flight that he completely outdistanced Stark's 
brigade which was immediately dispatched in pursuit. " 

Clinton's failure to follow up his success at Springfield 
is even more inexplicable than the conduct of Knyphausen 
in the preceding incursion. It may be urged in excuse of the 
latter that, after fighting a determined and elusive enemy all 
the way from Elizabeth, and losing many of his best troops 

'Hatfield's Elizabeth, 497; Trial of Lt.-Col. Thomas of the 1st. Fool 
Guards, 10, 11. 

^Hatfield's Elizabeth, 498, 499; Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, 
I, 324. 




Sl'RIXGFIKI.I) IIATTLE Arc iXT M K.V] 



•:.\T 



Clinton's Irresulutiun 329 

at Connecticut Farms, it was disheartening to find his further 
progress barred by Washington and his army, in a position 
from which they could not be readily dislodged. Clinton, 
however, was called upon to face no such formidable 
opponent. He was confronted only by Greene, whose force 
was so small, as compared with the strength of the in\aders, 
that the resistance offered is really astonishing. It is true 
that Clinton engaged in a pitched battle, which was a much 
more serious and important action than that which ter- 
minated Knyphausen's raid; but Clinton succeeded in defeat- 
ing his adversary, and, although his casualties were dis- 
proportionately large, his abandonment of the enterprise 
in the flush of victory is not easily explained. Stedman, the 
English historian, accounts for his change of plan by sug- 
gesting that a further advance would have compelled him 
to fight his way through a country naturally difficult and 
abounding in strong passes, where his progress would be 
disputed with an obstinacy well illustrated by the resistance 
encountered at Springfield: that the expedition, even if suc- 
cessful, might prove too costly, and that the expected arrival 
of a powerful French fleet on the American coast precluded 
him from engaging in any enterprise which would require 
much time, or carry him a sonsiderable distance from 
New York.' This explanation, however, is by no means 
satisfactory. Clinton must have been aware of the rumored 
proximity of the French fleet before he left New York; he 
undertook the march to Morristown with full knowledge 
of the topography of the intervening country, the distance 
he would have to travel, and the opposition he would be 
likely to meet. He was informed of all the circumstances of 
Knyphausen's incursion, and was prepared to profit by any 
errors of judgment which might have contributed to the 
latter's failure. Even the knowledge that reinforcements 

' Stedman's .American War, II, 244. 



330 History of Chatham 

were marching to Greene's support could hardly have dis- 
mayed the leader of so powerful a force, and we can only 
account for the relinquishment of his design by assuming 
that, upon viewing the steeps of the Short Hills, he over- 
estimated the difficulty of penetrating such a region. 

General Washington received news of the battle late in 
the afternoon of the same day, while at Rockaway bridge, 
on the road from Troy to Lower Montville, about eleven 
miles north of Morristown. He at once detached a brigade 
under Anthony Wayne to aid Greene by attacking the 
enemy's right flank, and at the same time fell back to Whip- 
pany, to be within supporting distance.' Wayne pressed 
forward with all possible speed, but, upon reaching Chat- 
ham, he learned that the enemy had retreated, and that his 
presence in Springfield was not required. He accordingly 
halted at Chatham for the night, and on the following 
morning rejoined the commander-in-chief. 

WAYNE TO WASHINGTON. 

Chatham, 23d. June, 1780. 
8 o'clock p. M. 
Dear General — 

You no doubt have heard that the enemy, after burning Spring- 
field, are retired to their fofmer posts on Elizabethtown Point. 
Their number, from the best observation, did not exceed 4,000. 
They brought out three days' provisions, which probably 
is to serve them until they reach the vicinity of West Point. 
I have not yet seen Gen. Green ; but from good intelligence, the 
grenadiers and light infantr\', composing two battalions, together 
with all the other troops lately arrived from Charlestown, except 
the legion Embarked last evening, but had not sailed this morning. 
May they not wait the return of those who marched from the point 
this morning, and proceed in conjunction up the river, in full con- 
fidence that this manoevre has drawn your excellency's attention to 
this quarter? 

" Irving's Washington, IV, 67. 



Wayne at Chatfiam 331 

I shall in consequence move along the mountain towards Passaic 
falls, in the morning, unless countermanded by your excellency or 
General Green. 

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Anthony Wayne. 
General Washington. 

WASHINGTON'S REPLY. 

Whippany, 1 1 o'clock P. M. 
23d June 1780. 
Dear Sir — 

Some time before the receipt of your favor, I was informed 
that the enemy had returned to their station at Elazabeth- 
town Point. It is certainly difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain 
their views. I, however, all things considered, wish to keep our 
force as compact as possible, and therefore wish you, if you find in 
the morning that the enemy are quiet or gone over to Staten Island, 
to return by the same route you marched to-day. 

I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant. 

General Wayne.' ^°- Washington. 

The American casualties at Springfield were light, for 
the fire of the British artillery was providentially too high 
to do much execution. Greene's losses were 13 killed, 49 
wounded and 9 missing; while of the militia none was killed, 
and but 12 wounded. The British loss was much greater: it 
was stated by Lieutenant Matthew of the Coldstream 
Guards to be not less than 500 killed, wounded and missing, 
besides officers; though this estimate probably included 
Knyphausen's incursion as well as that of Clinton. - 

As a precautionary measure, while the result of the 
battle was in doubt, a number of the American wounded 
were removed to a considerable distance from the village; 
and Dr. Ashbel Green of the Morris County militia states 

'Moore's Wayne, 109, 110. 

"Hatfield's Elizabeth, 499; Historical Magazine, Ser. 1, I, 105. 



332 History of Chatham 

that the road by which his company marched to Springfield 
was in places literally sprinkled with the blood of wounded 
soldiers who had been carried along it.' Four of the latter 
were brought to Day's hotel near Chatham for surgical 
treatment, and were placed in the barn of the tavern, where 
they died a few days later.- The interments were made a 
short distance up the river (in Summit), on a plot of ground 
now owned by George B. Vanderpoel, lying between the 
River Road and the mill-pond. The graves were not marked 
with monuments, and their exact location has been lost; 
but the late Stephen H. Ward, an aged resident of Chat- 
ham, used to say that he recalled having seen in his boy- 
hood some graves there, which, he was told, were the rest- 
ing places of Revolutionary soldiers. They were then 
indicated by mounds, perhaps half a dozen in number, on 
the high ground about 150 feet southeast of the mill-dam. 

The action at Springfield was the last attempt of the 
British to penetrate this part of the State. It was by far the 
most important engagement of the war which occurred in 
the vicinity of Chatham, and occasioned a more general 
turning out of the men enrolled for militia duty throughout 
this region than any other event of the struggle for liberty. 
Consequently its details were distinctly remembered by the 
veterans of the Revolution, and were related by them to 
their children and their children's children long after other 
war-time incidents had been forgotten. Not only did every 
man who was qualified for military service hasten to the 
repulse of the enemy, but a number who, by reason of their 
vocation, or physical infirmity, were exempt from militia 
duty, made their way to Springfield to witness the combat 
from the slopes of the neighboring hills. The suspense of 
the people of Chatham while the battle was in progress can 
be neither realized nor portrayed. The distance of five 

'Jones's Ashbel Green, 118. 
•Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 333. 



Terror of the Inhabitaxis 333 

miles which separated them from the scene of conflict was 
not sufficient to deaden the frightful thunder of the artil- 
lery; and their terror was increased a hundred fold when 
dense clouds of smoke rising above the intervening hills 
apprized them that Springfield was in flames. With their 
anxiety from the peril of their loved ones at the post of 
danger were mingled the gravest fears for their ow^n safety, 
since the possibility of defeating so formidable a body of 
British troops was considered by no means certain; and at 
almost every house the families of the patriot soldiers could 
be seen loading their most cherished possessions into wagons 
to which oxen were attached (all the horses having been 
commandeered), in readiness to seek a place of safety up 
the Passaic valley, or among the Morris County hills. 

"The worst of consequences was anticipated ;" writes Dr. Sam- 
uel L. Tuttle, "but, at leiigtfi, the suspense of the whole community 
was at an end, when an express rider came dashing up the road, swift 
as the wind, crying at the top of his voice, 'The British are flying: 
the British are flying;' and when our victorious troops were seen re- 
turning from the scene of the strife, it was impossible for them to 
restrain their joy. Their long and repeated hurras, as they came 
through the place, the waiving of handkerchiefs from every dwelling 
along the lines of the march, and the tears of joy that were stream- 
ing down the faces of persons of all ages and all conditions in the 
community, showed very clearly what a deliverance God had wrought 
out for them on that day. Though there were many wounded and 
some killed in the vicinity, never, on the whole, did the national flag 
float more e.xultingly, and never did a heartier tribute of gratitude 
arise from the dwellings and the hearts of this region, than those 
with which that day was marked."' 

The perplexities and dangers to which the patriots were 
exposed by the activities of the enemy, at the time of, and 

'Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 333. 



334 History of Chatham 

for a few weeks after, the battle of Springfield, are thus 
alluded to in a letter of Rev. James Caldwell: 

Chatham July 3d. 1780 

Sir, 

Our situation here is exceedingly distressing. Parties out con- 
tinually after ever active Whig, and not a Centinel between us 
and the enemy. During the Alarm the farmers below cou'd not 
work their fields, & now they dare not in safety. Corn and grass 
suffer. And no decency can be observed at Elizabeth Town about 
Flags. I know your Excellency must attend to your grand object — 
from this we do not wish to divert you. But if you can grant the 
3d., or rather the first & third Jersey Regiments, You will add inex- 
pressible joy to the Country, & add to the many favours granted. 

Your excellency's most obed & very huml. sevt. 

James Caldwell. 

His Excellency Genl Washington 

[Addressed:] 

Public Service 
His Excellency 

General Washington^ 

The fact that the following letter, written by Colonel 
Dayton of the Third New Jersey, is dated at Chatham, in- 
dicates that Mr. Caldwell's request for the presence of that 
regiment in the neighborhood was granted. 

Chatham July 7th 1780. 

Sir 

There is not the least doubt that the British in New 
York have certain accounts of the Approch of a french fleet, as a 
number of large ships are now moored between the east and west 
bank for the purpose of sinking to stop the passage or render it as 
difficult as possible. I have a boat laying up North River I propose 
to direct a man to run away with her to New York and get into the 

'Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 39, 20. 



The Shippen Court-Martial 335 

service or to follow fishing to Sandy hook untill he gets a through 
knowledge of every obstruction in the narrows and then return to 
Eliz Town, if your Excellency Approves of this plan I have not 
the least doubt but I can procure a proper person to carry it into 
execution. 

By the best accounts I can get the number of the enemies Vessels 
mentioned in my last was nearly right, but it cannot be exactly as- 
certained as two or three are continually kept cruising twenty leagues 
off the Hook. 

Tuesday night last four men were taken out of their beds and 
carried to S[t]aten Island by eight or ten refugees, the men taken 
lives about one mile west of Eliz.Town and are as good men as any 
in this country. 

I am your Excellencys most Obedient Hbl servant 

Elias Davton.^ 

During the interval between Knyphausen's raid and the 
battle of Springfield, Chatham witnessed a sitting of the 
court-martial appointed for the trial of Dr. William Shippen, 
Jr., Director-General of Military Hospitals, on charges of 
official misconduct. This was a celebrated case: it attracted 
wide attention, caused the civil and military authorities much 
trouble and perplexity,- subjected them to severe criticism, 
and gave rise to bitter animosity between the doctor's 
adherents and his adversaries. As the court was composed 
of officers in active service, it was obliged to follow the 
army, holding its sittings at irregular intervals and in many 
different places. The proceeding was commenced at Mor- 
ristown in January, continued through the following sum- 
mer, and terminated in Philadelphia. A session was held in 
Springfield on June 15th," and another in Chatham a few 
days later. 

" Washington Papers in the Library of Congress, 39, 56. 

■ Balch's The Maryland Line in the Revolution, US. 

" Washington's Orderly Book, March 23, to July 23, 1780. 



336 History of Chatham 

FROM THE ORDERLY BOOK OF THE FIRST 
PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT. 

Head Qrs. Short Hills, June 21st. 1780. 

The Court Martial, of which Gen'l Hand is President, is to 
sit at Chatam to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock, at Darling taverin, 
and proceed on the trial of Dr. Shiping. The will sit from Day to 
Day till the business is finished, unless a movement of the enemy 
should make it necessary the should join their respactave Corps, in 
which cases the are to Do it without further orders.' 

William Shippen, Jr., was one of the most eminent 
and successful physicians of Philadelphia. He was born in 
that city in 1736, the son of William Shippen, Sr., who was 
also a member of the medical profession. He graduated 
from the College of New Jersey in 1754, studied medicine 
with his father, and afterwards in Great Britain, and re- 
ceived the degree of M. D. from the University of Edin- 
burgh in 1 76 1. Returning to Philadelphia, he commenced 
the practice of medicine and surgery, and also established a 
school of anatomy, his lectures being the first on that sub- 
ject which had ever been delivered in America. Through his 
efforts midwifery was first recognized as a science, to be 
studied as a regular branch of medical education. His 
ability and success as a teacher led to his election, a few years 
later, to the chair of Anatomy and Surgery in the medical 
school of the College of Philadelphia, and subsequently to a 
corresponding office in the University of Pennsylvania. - 

Soon after the outbreak of the Revolution, Dr. Shippen 
was appointed chief physician of the Flying Camp, and in 
April, 1777, was elected director-general of all military 
hospitals for the armies of the United States; being, in fact, 
the author of the plan upon which the hospital department 

' Liiin & Egle's The Pennsylvania Line in the Revolution, H, 534. 
■ Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, V, 512; Wicke's His- 
tory of Medicine in New Jersey, 59. 



w 



Charges Against Siiippen 337 

as organized. As early as 1778, charges of dereliction of 
duty and misappropriation of hospital stores were made 
against him by Dr. Benjamin Rush, physician-general of the 
Middle Department, but no action was taken at that time. 
In 1780, however, the accusations were repeated in a form 
more explicit and positi\'e; and the matter assumed so serious 
an aspect that he was placed under arrest, and a court- 
martial was appointed for his trial. The charges are set 
forth in the following order: 

Morris Town, Jany. 5th 1780. 

Sir 

You are hereby ordered in Arrest on the following Charges, 

preferred against \ou at the Instance of Doctor John Morgan. 

First — Fraud, in selling Hospital Stores as your own property, & 
in making use of Continental Waggons for the Transportation 
of the Same. 

Second — Speculation in, & selling Hospital Stores, whilst the Sick 
were perishing for the want of them, accompanied with pecula- 
tion, & Adulteration of Hospital Wines at Bethlehem. 

Third — Keeping no Regular Books of Accts. with proper Checks 
and V^ouchers for the E\i)enditure of Public Money & Hospital 
Stores: And neglecting and refusing to pay just & reasonable 
Hospital Accts. and insulting the person who applied for Settle- 
ment. 

Fourth — Neglect of Hospital duty, from which many of the Sick 
suffered in a Shameful and Shocking Manner, and making false 
Reports to the President of Congress of the State of ye Hos- 
pitals & of the Sick. 

Fifth — Scandalous and infamous practices such as are unbecoming 
the Character of an officer & Gentleman, in aspersing and 
calumniating the Reputation and Conduct of your Superior 
Officers to the Members of Congress in order to vilify, degrade 
and supplant them. 
By order of his E.xcellency 

Otho Williams A. Gl — 



338 History of Chatham 

To Doctor William Shippen Jun. Director General of the Hos- 
pitals of the United States of America.* 

EXTRACT OF GENERAL ORDERS 

Head Quarters Morristown 
March 13th 1780. 
A General Court Martial of the line to sit Tomorrow tin 
OClock at the new house in Morristown for the tryal of Doctor 
William Shippen and such others as may be brought before them. 
Brigadier General Hand is appointed President, Colonel Hazen 
Proctor Lieut. Colonels DeHart & North & Majors Theyer & 
Greer are appointed Members. A Capt from each Brigade in Camp 
except the 2d Maryland and 1st Penna. will also attend as members.- 

Shippen's principal accuser at this time was Dr. John 
Morgan, who had previously held the office of director- 
general and chief physician of hospitals, and who acted as 
prosecutor at the trial, in the absence of the judge advocate 
general. The proceeding lasted several months, a number 
of witnesses being examined and a great mass of evidence 
considered; but the prisoner was at length acquitted upon 
the ground of insufficiency of evidence, although the court 
pronounced his speculations in hospital stores to have been 
highly improper and justly reprehensible. Then followed 
a protracted and most acrimonious correspondence in the 
Philadelphia newspapers between Shippen's friends and his 
opponents, the latter being led by Morgan, whose letters 
(which often filled two and even three columns of print) 
charged that the court had been unduly prejudiced in the 
prisoner's favor, that the proceedings had been irregular in 
many respects, and that Shippen, instead of being exonerated 
bv the decision, as he and his friends claimed, had been dis- 
honorably acquitted; since the language employed by the 

' From original in possession of the Washington -Association of New 
Jersey. 
•-Ibid. 



Shippen Reappointed 



339 



court in denouncing his conduct would be construed in all 
disciplined armies as a sentence of guilt and condemnation. 
After the conclusion of the trial, Congress, by a small 
majority, reappointed Shippen to his former position — an 
action which caused much criticism of the governing body, 
and renewed attacks upon the doctor's character. It is 
thought to have been in consequence of this general expres- 
sion of disapproval that he resigned his office early in 
January, 1781.' 

' Morgan's letters in the PennsyU'ania Packet, November, 1780. 




CHAPTER XV 

Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line at Morristown — Part of the New 
Jersey Brigade ordered to Chatham — Revolt of the Troops at 
Pompton — They march to Chatham — They are promised Re- 
dress — They return to Pompton — They again become In- 
subordinate — The Mutiny suppressed — The Case of the "Back 
Shad" and the "Inhabitants of Newark." 

THE opening of the year 1781 witnessed a serious in- 
surrection of the Pennsylvania Continental troops who 
were in winter quarters at Morristown. A feeling of dis- 
content had been steadily increasing among these soldiers 
since the preceding autumn, caused by a variety of trying 
circumstances, chief of which were that the men had received 
no pay for twelve months, and were destitute of proper food 
and clothing, and that a misunderstanding had arisen con- 
cerning their term of enlistment. This the officers claimed 
was for three years or during the war; but while a few of 
the rank and file concurred in this opinion, the great majority 
insisted that they were enrolled for three years only, and 
were entitled to a discharge at the end of that period, 
whether the war was concluded or not. At length the troops 
were goaded into open rebellion by the offer, on the part of 
the State of Pennsylvania, of a bounty of three "half-Joes'" 
to any man who would enlist for the remainder of the war. 
To the veterans who had long endured the hardships and 
perils of camp and battlefield, without pay and often without 
rations, only to have their demands for money parried with 
empty promises or totally ignored, this liberal offer to raw 
recruits was particularly exasperating. They made it their 

' A half-Johannes is meant. A Johannes, according to the standard of 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was equivalent to i6. — Almon's Remem- 
brancer, 1776, 111, 27Q. 



The Pennsylvania Mutiny 341 

principal ground of complaint, and declared their intention 
of marching in a body to Philadelphia, and demanding 
redress of the Continental Congress. 

On the evening of January ist, about 1300 Pennsyl- 
vanians (comprising the entire line with the exception of 
portions of three regiments) turned out under arms, pro- 
vided themselves with food and ammunition, seized a num- 
ber of horses belonging to their officers, together with six 
pieces of artillery, and marched in the direction of Phila- 
delphia. Their departure was preceded by much disorder 
and even rioting, in the course of which at least one officer 
was killed, and General Anthony Wayne, who commanded 
them, was threatened with instant death if he attempted by 
force to oppose their progress.' These troops formed the 
chief part of the force at Morristown, and the revolt caused 
the greatest anxiety, for it was feared that the mutineers in 
their anger and excitement would commit many acts of 
violence, and that the British, upon learning of the insur- 
rection, would embrace the opportunity to advance from 
New York; the latter apprehension being increased by a 
report that a party of the enemy had actually landed at 
Elizabethtown Point." 

The next morning General Wayne directed the New 
Jersey brigade, then encamped at Pompton, to march to 
Morristown to assist in quelling the mutiny and preventing 
disorder. Colonel Israel Shreve, who commanded at Pomp- 
ton, could not send the entire brigade, as some of the 
men were urgently needed for other duties, and some 
were unable to leave camp owing to insufficient clothing 
and equipment; but he detached a battalion of 250, being 
about half of his total force, and ordered them to Morris- 
town under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Bar- 

' Sherman's Historic Morristown, 370 et seq. ; Hervey's Washington, 119; 
Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, I, 312. 
' Boudinot's Elias Boudinot, I, 207. 



342 History of Chatham 

ber.' Upon their arrival, the Jerseymen expressed sympathy 
for the mutineers, saying that the latter had real grievances 
which ought to be redressed; and in fact showed such un- 
mistakable signs of insubordination that it was not con- 
sidered prudent to oppose them to the Pennsylvanians." In- 
stead, General Wayne ordered them to Chatham, to serve 
the double purpose of preventing the insurgents from march- 
ing that way to join the British, and of opposing any ad- 
vance which the latter might make. He wrote to Washing- 
ton: 

I have ordered the Jersey brigade to Chatham, where the militia 
are also assembling, lest the enemy should take advantage of this 
alarming crisis. Indeed, the alarm-guns have been fired, and the 
beacons kindled towards Elizabethtown ; perhaps occasioned by our 
unhappy affair.^ 

COLONEL BARBER TO COLONEL SHREVE. 

Morristown Jany 6th 1781. 
Dr Sir, 

I received yours inclosing General Wayne's to you, yesterday 
morning. It was undoubtedly bad policy to send the Jersey troops 
from their encampment, unless with an evident design against the 
enemy. The cause of the Pennsylvanians is I fear too much con- 
sidered as a just and common cause. The situation of the battalion 
I have the command of is delicate, and I have the greatest reason 
to be apprehensive of consequences. Some men of the 1st regiment 
have been trying to foment an insurrection they as yet have been 
altogether unsuccessful in the 2d and 3d. The other officers and 
myself were up almost all last night expecting an attempt, but I now 
enjoy the happiness to think that the party was small originally and 
could procure very few adherents. In order to create a diversion from 
this unhappy affair, I have been advised, and indeed it was 

' Letter of Shreve to Washington, Washington Papers in Library of 
Congress, 45, 67. 

" Hall's Parsons, 321. 

' Ford's Writings of Washington, IX, 90. 



Demands of thk Mutineers 343 

my own opinion, to march the battalion to Chatham. Their atten- 
tion will more likely be fixed on the enemy. I march today and will 
quarter there this night. I think you had best avoid Morristown 
unless you are bound by orders. Nothing from Gen. Wayne on the 
Insurgents. 

I am, Sir, yours &c. 

F. Barber 
Litiit Col. 
Since closing my letter I am informed that the Pennsylvanians 
are stopped & are come to terms. 
Col. Shreve.' 

Finding that he was unable to quell the mutiny, Wayne 
decided to accompany the insurgents to Philadelphia, 
promising to do all in his power to aid them in obtaining the 
desired relief. When Princeton was reached they presented 
to him, at his suggestion, a written enumeration of their 
demands. These were: 

1. A discharge for all those, without exception, who had served 
three years under their original engagements, and had not received the 
increased bounty and re-enlisted for the war. 

2. An immediate payment of all their arrears of pay and cloth- 
ing, both to those who should be discharged, and those who should be 
retained. 

3. The residue of their bounty, to put them on an equal foot- 
ing with those recently enlisted, and future substantial pay to those 
who should remain in the service. 

Reasonable as these demands were, the general doubted 
his authority to acceed to them. He therefore referred the 
negotiation to a committee of Congress, who, after con- 

• 'VVashington Papers in Library of Congress, 45, 71. On lanuarv 8 

Colonel Shreve.wnt.ng to Washington from Pompton regarding" the unset- 
tled condition o the New Jersey troops, said: "I shall immediately set out 
tor Chatham to learn more particularly the situation of affairs in that quar- 
ter and hnally settle the arrangement of the Brigade with Colonel Dayton 
who IS at that place. — IbiJ., 45, 67. ' 



344 History of Chatham 

ferring with the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, effected 
a satisfactory settlement of the soldiers' grievances, and thus 
restored order in the brigade/ 

Sir Henry Clinton was soon apprized of the revolt, and 
was led to believe the dissatisfaction of the mutineers to be 
so great that they might readily be persuaded to join his 
army. He accordingly sent out two emissaries, John Mason 
of New York and James Ogden of South River, N. J., who 
promised the Pennsylvanians a liberal reward in money and 
clothing if they would lay down their arms, march to New 
York, and accept the protection of the British government; 
assuring them that no military services would be required 
unless voluntarily offered. At the same time Clinton passed 
over to Staten Island with a large body of troops, prepared 
to welcome and protect the insurgents if they should accept 
his offer. The Pennsylvanians, however, merely demanded 
the recognition by the government of a just claim — they had 
no thought of treason; and not only was Sir Henry's pro- 
posal indignantly rejected, but his emissaries were tried as 
spies, convicted, and executed." 

A few excerpts are given from letters written in and 
near Morristown at the time of this crisis. On January 7th 
the Marquis de Lafayette writes to the Chevalier de la 
Lucerne, French Minister to the United States, concerning 
the revolt : 

Some men still remain in the huts; we are trj'ing to assemble 
them under the officers and to send them some miles [awa)'.] The 
cannon which remains and a part of the the munitions will be sent 
to Chatham, where there is a Jersay detachment. The other muni- 
tions will be sent elsewhere. There has been a disturbance in the 
Jersay detachment which is in front of us, caused by some English 
and Irish soldiers, but the others have kept them quiet. It is said 
that a Connecticut Brigade is marching here; while waiting we have 

* Barber's New Jersey Historical Collections, 393, 394 
' Pennsylvania Archives, Ser. 2, H, 665. 



Correspondence Respecting the Mutiny 345 

behind us Princetown on our right approximately two hundred 
Pennsilvanians scattered about, in front of us three hundred militia 
and three hundred Continental troops of Jersay ; who, joined to the 
enemy, who have nevertheless not yet come out, render our position 
a little precarious.' 

General Arthur St. Clair, in a letter of the same date 
to Governor Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania, writes in part as 
follows : 

The Ennemy have made no Movement yet in consequence of this 
affair and it may be that they are so much weakened by their late 
Detachments as not to be able to spare a sufficient Body, but I am 
persuaded that if they were in Jersey great Numbers would desert 
to them, as it is certain that british Emmissarys have set this Matter 
a going, and many of them have confessed to us that it was proposed 
to them to lead them all there. This however they nobly refused. 

The General is not yet arrived, and some appearance of similar 
disposition in the Jersey Troops induced Colonel! Barber who com- 
mands them to move them to Chatham so that we are here in a 
very awkward situation and have this moment heard that they have 
sent some Person to bring ofif the remaining few— perhaps a hundred 
and all the stores, and we have not a soul to prevent it — the Militia 
bemg all out already. This may not be true, but if it is attempted 
it must be prevented at all Hazards.^ 

The letter-books of Enos Reeves, '• then a first lieutenant 
in the Seventh Pennsylvania regiment, contain references to 
mutiny. A letter dated Mount Kemble, January 2nd, 1781, 
concludes as follows : 



im. 



The militia are called out, they are to assemble at Chath:i 
in order to oppose the enemy if they come out, or the i-utineers if 
they attempt going to them. 

American Hist. Review, XX, 581. 
;PennsyIvania Magazine of History, XXII, 344, from original in pos 
session of the Washington Association of New Jersey. 
" Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XXI, 72-79. 



346 History of Chatham 

Writing from Dr. LiddeFs at "Mendem," under date 
of January 14th, he says: 

The militia of this and neighboring counties are called out and 
ordered to rendezvous at Chatham, as well to defend the lines from 
any attempt of the enemy to penetrate the country at this time as 
to hinder any of the mutineers from taking that route, should they 
attempt it. We have certain intelligence that the enemy have rein- 
forced Saten Island with a large body of men to be ready for any 
movement that may offer. 

In another letter written at the same time and place he 
says: 

Col. Humpton has arrived at Trentown and has sent up for 
his baggage — for the purpose of sending which, I have this day been 
to Squire Daileys who promised to send me a wagon to morrow. 

On January 17th he again writes: 

Squire Dailey disappointed me in a wagon, and I wrote to Squire 
Stiles for one for the Colonel's baggage. 

On the morning of the 16th. breakfasted at Col. Spencer's and 
got an order on Squire Stiles for three wagons, but on my arrival 
at his house found a prior order from the Deputy Q. M. from Mor- 
ristown had deprived me of what he could furnish. I then proceeded 
to Squire Dailey 's at Chatham, who promised me three, which he 
was to send the following morning. You must know that the mu- 
tineers stole my horse and I now have a borrowed one The 

17th. I procured a wagon for the Colonel's baggage and gave orders 
for its setting off the next morning. I awaited the arrival of the 
teams from Chatham with great impatience, but to my great mortifi- 
cation found myself again disappointed. The teams for twelve miles 
round this place have been so harrassed since our arrival in quarters, 
with assisting in drawing the timber for building, drawing forage, 
provisions and timber for the redoubts, with what the mutineers 
impressed and what we have employed to move our stores, that a 



Revolt of the New Jersey Line 347 

person might almost as well attempt to make a wagon and horses as 
to procure them otherwise. 

About this time a committee of officers of the New 
Jersey line conferred with the State Assembly in an effort 
to improve the intolerable condition of the troops. The 
salary of the soldiers was long in arrear; they had received 
it only in small amounts and at irregular intervals, and, 
owing to the depreciation of the currency, the money paid 
them was of little use. While these negotiations were in 
progress the Pennsylvania mutiny occurred, and the officers' 
committee took, advantage of the consternation it caused 
to demand payment for the troops at rate of "75 for i ;" 
i. e., seventy-five dollars of paper money for one of specie. 
The Assembly, dreading further disorder, at once complied; 
directing all moneys then in the treasury to be sent to the 
soldiers, and appointing commissioners to examine the terms 
of their enlistments, and to honorably discharge those whose 
period of service should be found to have expired.' 

The mutiny of the Pennsylvanians was followed by a 
similar revolt of the New Jersey Continental troops which 
bears more directly upon the Revolutionary history of 
Chatham. The portion of the Jersey line which Colonel 
Shreve commanded was in camp at Pompton, while the bat- 
talion which Wayne had ordered to Chatham at the time 
of the Pennsylvania mutiny still remained here under Colonel 
Dayton, the brigade commandant; there being, according to 
the estimate of British spies, about 250 men at each place. 
These soldiers, whose sufferings were fully equal to those of 
the Pennsylvanians, and whose terms of enlistment were 
also in dispute, had been considerably demoralized by the 
mutiny at iMorristown and its successful outcome; and dur- 
ing the month of January a spirit of insubordination 
'Magazine of American History, X, 338. 



348 History of Chatham 

gradually spread through the camp at Pompton which 
eventually ripened into open revolt. 

Late in the afternoon of Saturday, January 20th, 
Colonel Shreve was informed that the men were about to 
mutiny. He immediately ordered them to fall in, meaning 
to scatter them in small detachments, but only a few obeyed. 
During the evening about 160 suddenly rose in arms, making 
the same demands which had been yielded to the Pennsyl- 
vanians, and marched to Chatham with the intention of in- 
citing their comrades at this place to join in the revolt. The 
uprising was chiefly instigated by David Gilmour (Gilmore) 
of Somerset County, a sergeant in the Second regiment, and 
John Tuttle of Morris County, a private in the First.' The 
mutineers chose three leaders from among their number: 
first, George Grant, a sergeant-major of the Third regiment, 
and a deserter from the British; second, Jonathan Nichols, a 
sergeant in Captain Mitchell's company of the First regi- 
ment; and third, John Minthorn, sergeant-major of the 
latter regiment.^ 

COLONEL SHREV'E TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Pompton, 20 January, 178L 
Sir, 

It is with pain I inform your Excellency, that the troops 
at this place revolted this evening and marched towards Trenton. 
Their behavior and demands are similar to those of the Pennsylvania 
line, though no blood has been spilt. I was informed by a woman 
of their intention late this afternoon, and immediately ordered all 
the men off duty to be paraded, with design to detach them in dif- 
ferent parties for the night; but found very few that would turn 
out. I was amongst them for some time, but could not prevail upon 
them to desist. They have lately received a part of the deprecia- 

' Magazine of American History, X, 417 n.; Stryker's Officers and Men 
of New Jersey in the Revolution, 607, 791; New Jersey Journal, No. 102. 

'Magazine of .'\merican History, X, 417 n.; Stryker's Officers and Men 
of New Jersey in the Revolution, 108, 121. 



Attempt to Quell the Mutiny 349 

tion of their pay, and most of them are much disguised with liquor. 
Colonel Frelinghuysen, one of the commissioners of the State, is now- 
here. We mean to follow them in the morning, and endeavor to 
bring them to reason. I apprehend the detachment at Chatham 
will join them. If the other detachments should leave their posts, 
I shall direct Major Throop to send to Dobb's Ferry, and to cover 
the stores at Ringwood and at this place. Colonel Dayton, I make 
no doubt, will be able to do duty,' and will exert himself to com- 
promise matters with those at Chatham. 

I am. Sir, &c. &c. , „ 

I. Shreve.- 

History does not state whether the troops at Chatham 
joined in the insurrection, but apparently they did not. 
Colonel Dayton, upon hearing of the approach of the 
mutineers, diminished the force at this place by granting 
furloughs to some of the men, and ordering others to Spring- 
field; thus removing a large part of his command from the 
influence of the insurgents. The latter remained at Chatham 
over Sunday, endeavoring to spread the seeds of insubordina- 
tion, and doubtless causing the worthy citizens of the village 
a good deal of anxiety. Learning that the Legislature had 
appointed commissioners to examine into, and as far as 
possible to relieve, the conditions of which they complained, 
they agreed to select two representatives of their own, and 
to submit the matters in dispute to arbitration; Colonel 
Dayton being one of those chosen. On Monday two of the 
legislative commissioners. Rev. James Caldwell and Colonel 
Frederick P relinghuysen, arrived at Chatham, and, with the 
assistance of Dayton and Shreve, succeeded in pacifying the 
excited troops. Though they refused to treat with the 
soldiers while in a state of insubordination, they assured 
them that if they returned to camp and again yielded to 
discipline, every grievance would be redressed; promising 
discharges with full pay to the three-year men, who included 

' Colonel Dayton was in poor health at that time. 
"Sparks's Writings of Washington, VII, 561. 



350 History of Chatham 

the whole line except about 150 who acknowledged that they 
had enlisted for the war. The mutineers then insisted that 
the three-year men should be discharged upon the un- 
supported evidence of their own affidavits (a privilege 
which had been granted to the Pennsylvanians) ; but this the 
commissioners refused to promise, even In cases where the 
original muster rolls were missing; and after a protracted 
discussion the men abandoned their conntention, professing 
satisfaction with the assurances they had received.' Colonel 
Dayton, in view of their apparent contrition, and of the 
fact that they were previously unaware of the legislative 
action on their behalf, promised them a full pardon if they 
would immediately return to their duty; and he drew up a 
form of pardon, which, upon being read to them, was re- 
ceived with three cheers of approbation and acceptance. - 
On Wednesday the troops started on their return to Pomp- 
ton, but their penitence, unfortunately, was short-lived. On 
the march they again became insubordinate, and after their 
arrival at camp the ringleaders had little difficulty in once 
more arousing them to mutiny. 

COLONEL DAYTON TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham, Jana. 24th: 1781. 
Sir, 

On Sunday morning I was alarmed with an account that the 
Jersey brigade had revolted, were directing their march this way 
and were in the neighborhood of this place. I immediately desired 
the officers of the detachment upon this station to sound the senti- 
ments of the men under their immediate command, who soon dis- 
proved that they had no inclination to join with the seditious part of 
the brigade, but rather chose to avoid them. I gave permission to 
the major part of these to retire to their own homes and such of the 

' Magazine of American History, X, 337, 340; Hatch's Administration 
of the Revolutionary Army, 138. 

" Sparks's Writings of Washington, VH, 561. 



Dayton's Rkport of the Mutiny 351 

remainder as were not prevailed upon to join them, were directed 
to lay at Springfield until further orders. 

When the revolters were collected, the commissioners appointed 
by the assembly to enquire into k redress the grievances of the bri- 
gade with myself acquainted them with what powers we were vested 
and at the same time assured them that when they returned to their 
duty & not till then, we would hear and treat with them. A point 
which they strongly contested was that their own oaths should be 
admissible in determining the term of their enlistments as with the 
Pennsylvanians ; this we did not think proper by any means to grant 
them and they finally gave it up. They marched this day on their 
return to the tents with Colo: Shreve only, where they have 
promised again to put themselves under the command of their offi- 
cers. As soon as the men who were permitted to go out of the way 
are collected, I shall detach a guard with the cannon to Morris town 
and send on the others to the huts. As I am not without my fears, 
that, when they discover they are not discharged agreeable to their 
wishes by the commissioners, they may again become seditious and 
not consider themselves amenable to the orders of their officers, I 
would wish to be instructed by your excellency, whether in that 
case it would not be advisable to call in the militia, who, I am of 
the opinion can be at any time collected for that purpose, and make 
up of more vigorous measures to humble them. 

I am happy to acquaint your Excellency that I am greatly re- 
covered, altho my health and strength are not yet sufficiently estab- 
lished to warrant my continuance in camp at this season of the year. 

The enemy are now putting on board vessels, quantities of 
military ordinance stores, in which 'tis also said that troops are to 
be embarked, their destination is entirely unknown. May not the 
British have in expectation a general revolt of the army, and from 
these preparations, have their eye upon that point? 

I am Sir your Excellency's most obedient and Hble. servent, 

Elias Dayton. 

P. S. Enclosed is a copy of the pardon granted the mutineers, 
several of which did not comply with it, uho are proper objects, of 
whom I would wish to be made examples of.' 

* Washington Papers in Lilirary of Congress, 45, 271. 



352 History of Chatham 

FORM OF A PARDON. 

Chatham, 2J January, ijSl. 
The commandant of the Jersey brigade, in answer to the peti- 
tion of the sergeants for a general pardon, observes that, in consid- 
eration of the brigade having revolted before they were made 
acquainted with the resolution of the legislature directing an inquiry 
into their enlistments, and of their agreeing immediately upon their 
being informed of the said resolution to return to the duty, and of 
their having neither shed blood nor done violence to the person of 
any officer or inhabitant, he hereby promises a pardon to all such as 
immediately without hesitation shall return to their duty and conduct 
themselves in a soldierly manner. Those who shall, notwithstand- 
ing this unmerited proffer of clemency, refuse obedience, must expect 
the reward due to such obstinate villainy.' 

General Washington, who felt that the Pennsylvanians 
had been dealt with too leniently, determined that drastic 
action was now necessary; for bad as was the condition of 
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops, it was no worse 
than that of the soldiers of the other States, and he realized 
that the entire army would soon be disrupted were the spirit 
of mutiny permitted to spread. At his direction, therefore, 
the following order was issued to General Heath: 

Head Quarters, 10 o'clock p. in. 
Janry 21st. 1781. 
Dear Sir: 

His Excellency has just heard of the revolt of the Jersey 
troops, and directs me to inform you that he is determined at 
all hazards to put a stop to such proceedings, which must otherwise 
prove the inevitable dissolution of the armj'. He requests therefore 
you will be pleased to order a detachment to be made out from the 
garrison and other troops under your command, of five or six hun- 
dred of the most robust and best cloathed men, properly officered 
and provided for the purpose. The General expects the detachment 

' Sparks's Writings of Washington, VU, 561. 



Drastic Measures Adopted 353 

will be immediately compleated and equipped. And altho it should 
leave the posts very weak, he thinks there will be no risque, as the 
command of Major General Parsons will be returned before the 
enemy can take advantage of the movement. His Excellency will 
be at the Point in the morning. 

I have the honor to be, dear Sir, 

Your most obedt and very hble servant, 

D. HuMPHRYS, A. D. Camp. 
Maj. Gen. Heath.^ 

In compliance with these instructions, a detachment of 
500 men was made up from the Continental troops of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and marched 
on January 23rd from West Point to re-establish order and 
discipline in the Jersey Hne. The detachment was led by 
Major-General Robert Howe, who was directed to make 
no terms with the mutineers while in a state of resistance; 
and, after they had surrendered, to make an example of a 
few of the ringleaders by executing them on the spot. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Sprout was second in command 
of the detachment, and the other field officers were Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Mellcn and Major Oliver.-' Dr. James 
Thatcher, then a surgeon in the Ninth NLassachusctts, ac- 
companied the expedition, and he gives a graphic account of 
it in his Military Journal. 

At Ringwood they were joined by a detachment from 
the Second Continental artillery under Captain Stewart, with 
three 3-pounders.' Here it was learned that Dayton and 
Shreve had failed in their efforts to settle the difficulty by 
negotiation, and that, while some of the revolters seemed 
disposed to accept the terms of surrender and pardon which 
Dayton had prepared, a majority had refused,' and Howe 

' Mass. Historical Society Collections, Ser. 7, V, 165. 

' Thatcher's Military Journal, 244. 

' Atkinson's Newark, 122. 

* Magazine of American History, X, 331 n. 



354 History of Chatham 

perceived that an encounter with them could not be avoided. 
Marching from Ringwood at one o'clock in the morning of 
the 27th, he reached Pompton at daybreak, found the in- 
surgents asleep in their huts, and succeeded in surrounding 
the camp before his presence was discovered. It was an 
anxious moment for Howe and his officers, for they feared 
that their men were at heart in sympathy with the mutineers, 
and might refuse to obey an order to fire upon them; but 
this apprehension proved to be unfounded. The insurgents 
were awakened and peremptorily ordered to parade un- 
armed in front of their huts. Upon their refusal, the 
general sent Lieutenant-Colonel Barber to warn them that 
if they did not obey within five minutes, he would put them 
all to death; and by this threat he promptly brought them 
to terms. Three of the ringleaders, Gilmour, Tuttle and 
Grant, were then tried by a court-martial of which Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Sprout acted as president, standing in the 
snow. They were found guilty and sentenced to death ; 
though Grant was pardoned through the intercession of his 
commanding officer, who represented to Howe that he had 
acted as a leader with reluctance, and had tried to dissuade 
the men from insurrection. The other two culprits were 
immediately shot, twelve of the most guilty mutineers being 
selected to act as executioners.' 

"This," wrote Thatcher in his Journal, "was a most painful 
task; being themselves guilty, thej' were greatly distressed with the 
duty imposed upon them, and when ordered to load, some of them 
shed tears. The wretched victims, overwhelmed by the terrors of 
death, had neither time nor power to implore the mercy and for- 
giveness of their God, and such was their agonizing condition, that 
no heart could refrain from emotions of sympathy and compassion. 
The first that suffered was a sergeant and an old offender; he was 
led a few yards distance and placed on his knees — si.v of the 

' Thatcher's Military Journal, 244; Atkinson's Newark, 122; Magazine 
of .American History, X, 331 n. 



The Mutiny Subdued 355 

executioners, at the signal given by an officer, fired, three aiming at 
the head and three at the breast, the other six reserving their fire in 
order to dispatch the victim, should the first fire fail ; it so happened 
in this instance; the remaining six then fired, and life was instantly 
extinguished. The second criminal was by the first fire sent into 
eternity in an instant. The third being less criminal, by the rec- 
ommendation of his officers, to his unspeakable joy, received a par- 
don. This tragical scene produced a dreadful shock, and a salutary 
effect on the minds of the guilty soldiers. Never were men more 
completely humbled and penitent: tears of sorrow, and of joy, rushed 
from their eyes, and each one appeared to congratulate himself, that 
his forfeited life had been spared. The executions being finished, 
General Howe ordered the former officers to take their stations, and 
resume their respective commands; he then, in a very pathetic and 
affecting manner, addressed the whole line by platoons, endeavoring 
to impress their minds with a sense of the enormity of their crime! 
and the dreadful consequences that might have resulted. He then 
commanded them to ask pardon of their officers, and promise to 
devote themselves to the faithful discharge of their duty as soldiers 
in future." 

A report of the insurrection as given in the Neix; Jersev 
Journal is here reproduced, the interest of which is en- 
hanced by the fact that it was written and pubhshed in 
Chatham, where the disturbance in part occurred. 

CHATHAM, January 31. 

On Saturday evening, the 20th. instant, about one hundred and 
sixty soldiers of th* Jersey brigade, following the example of the 
Pennsylvanians, left their huts and proceeded to this place, under 
the direction of their sergeants. They were unacquainted with a 
Jate resolution of the legislature, appointing commissioners to inquire 
into their inlistments; but as soon as the commissioners, who met 
them here the Monday following, had read and explained that reso- 
lution to them, they immediately agreed to return to their duty. 
The commandant of the brigade, in consideration of their great 
penitence, and of their being unacquainted with the measures adopted 



2^6 History of Chatham 

for settling the disputes respecting their inlistments, promised full 
pardon to all who immediately returned to and continued in their 
dut}-. But upon the way to, and after their arrival at the huts, a 
few of the ringleaders, encouraged by emissaries from Sir Harry, 
and perhaps by the too great clemency of granting them a general 
pardon, again became insolent and mutinous. A detachment from 
the main army, under the command of General Howe, which had 
been sent on to quell the mutineers, arrived about this time, when 
those who had forfeited the pardon, by not performing the condi- 
tions, were apprehended by order of the General, and David Gilmore, 
sergeant in the 2d. regiment, and John Tuttle, private in the 1st, 
were tried, found guilty, and immediately executed. Every mark 
of penitence and respect for order was manifested by the others who 
had offended, and entire order and subordination took place in the 
brigade. 

The New Jersey Gazette thus describes the mutiny : 

TRENTON, January 31. 

On Saturday evening the 20th instant, about 150 privates of 
the New-Jersey brigade, which were quartered at Pompton, left 
their huts, and, under conduct of some of their sergeants, marched 
towards Chatham. The proceedings of the Legislature at their last 
sitting constituting commissioners to enquire into the claims of such 
soldiers of the brigade as considered themselves entitled to a dis- 
charge on account of the expiration of their enlistments, had not then 
been communicated to them. The commissioners went to Chatham 
on Monday, and having read and explained to them the resolutions 
of the Legislature, they immediately agreed to return to their duty. 
The commandant of the brigade, in consideration of their being 
unacquainted with the measures taken in their behalf, and of their 
acknowledgments of the offence, granted their request for a general 
pardon. The commissioners having appointed a time for settling 
their claims, they returned to the orders of their officers. A small 
part only of the brigade were engaged in this matter, the greater 
part disapproved of it, and all regret that it happened. To the 
honour however of these brave men we mention it with pleasure. 



Newspaper Comments 357 

that when they left their quarters they adopted a solemn resolution 
to put to death anyone who should attempt or even propose to go 
to the enemy's lines, and hang up without ceremony everj' tory who 
should presume to say a word tending to induce any of them so 
to do. 

The optimistic tone of this report indicates a desire to 
belittle the gravity of the insurrection, and suggests that the 
article was designed for British consumption, rather than for 
general information. The affair appears in a different light 
when described from the tory point of view in Rivington's 
Royal Gazette of New York, a fevv excerpts from which are 
given below. 

NEW YORK, January 13. 

These determined men [the Pennsyhania mutineers] provoked 
to a separation from Mr. Washington's army, by want of food, pay 
in efficient money and cloathing, at present occupy the college and 
houses in Prince Town, an advantageous and elevated position, 
where the country people amply supply them with all kinds of sub- 
sistence ; the New Jersey brigade, reserved and silent spectators of 
the event of this revolt, and amounting to about four hundred, are 
at Chatham ; all the Militia of the Province that can be forced out 
are in arms, and hovering around the Pennsylvanians ; they have 
hitherto behaved to the Dissidents with an obsequious complaisance, 
the necessity of which had been suggested to them b\- their dema- 
gogues. 

NEW YORK, January 17. 

When the Jersey line, consisting of 400 men, was paraded last 
Sunday, at Chatham, Col. Dayton offered to advance each man forty 
pounds of the newly issued paper bills, to induce them to support 
the militia in their hostile intentions against the revolters; but these 
soldiers, high in oath, exclaimed, The nnv is of equal value ivith the 
old, — both north nothing. 



358 History of Chatham 

NEW YORK, January 27. 

******** 

In this Gazette, dated the 17th. instant, an account was given 
of the refractory behavior of the Jersey Brigade to their officers, their 
disaffection to the rebel service has at last broke out into an absolute 
revolt. On the 19th. inst. (after the example of the Pennsylvania 
line) they declared themselves independent of their officers, and 
seized on everything necessary for their support in a state of separa- 
tion : on their march from Chatham they were attacked at Spring- 
field Bridge, by a body of about 500 militia commanded by Colonels 
Seely and Freelinghausen when some blood was shed, and the militia 
defeated; the roads are bad, their movements very slow, and their 
destination not yet known ; but on Wednesday evening they were 
within Seven Miles of Elizabeth Town. 

NEW YORK, Jan. 31. 

The Jersey troop, who had been some time as much dissatisfied 
as the Pennsylvanians, hearing the terms granted to the others, imme- 
diately revolted in like manner, chose their officers, and that part 
which lay at Pompton joined the rest at Chatham. They received, 
without difficulty, a promise that they should be satisfied, and were 
returning to Pompton. — Some, who had been straggling, were taken 
up, under pretense of their not having agreed to the terms proposed, 
and sent to Morristown gaol ; a sufficient proof to the others, that it 
is only the power they have in their own hands they can procure the 
smallest justice from Congress and their tools. 

The New York public library possesses in its collection 
of manuscripts an orderly book of the Jersey line covering 
the period from December, 1780, to June, 178 1. In this 
volume we find two orders of local interest, the second of 
which relates indirectly to the Jersey mutiny. They read as 
follows : 

Brigade Orders, January 11 1781. 

******** 

Major Hollingshead will join the detachment at Chatham under 
the command of Lieut. Col. Barber. 



Clinton's Proposals 359 

Brigade Orders, March 3rd. 1781. 
Adjutant Tomorrow, Bishop. 
At a Court martial held at Chatham the 28th February, 1781, 
whereof Captain Mead was president Lt. Seely Lt Parrot Ensign 
Gary & Ensign Bishop members. 

William Jones was tryed for threatening the Commissioners 
lives. 

The Court have acquited him. Lieut. Col. D'Hart is sorry 
to observe from the proceeding of the Court Martial presented to 
him, It by no means corresponds with his oppinion, he is therefore 
under the necesity of disapproving of the judgment & orders the 
prisoner to be sent to Morristown Gaol, with the Charge of endeav- 
oring to excite Mutiny. 

Sir Henry Clinton was not discouraged by the failure 
of his negotiations with the Pennsylvania mutineers, and 
upon learning of the New Jersey revolt, he repeated his 
offers, holding out similar inducements to join the British. 
He employed as an emissary for this purpose a spy 
named Woodruff,' who was a cousin of Jonathan Nich- 
ols, one of the leaders of the insurgents; but Woodruff 
proved to be in sympathy with the American cause (or else 
was detected, and pretended to be a friend of liberty in order 
to escape), and he gave up his papers to Colonel Dayton. 
Other papers, promising tempting rewards to any soldier 
who would join the enemy, were circulated among the mu- 
tineers, but the revolt was crushed so suddenly that no 
opportunity to accept these offers was afforded.' 

'The editor of the Magazine of American Historv thinks this was Uzal 
VVoodruff, of Essex Count}-, a private in Captain Crane's company of the 
First regiment. — I'ol. X, 417. 

'Gordon's Rise of .American Independence, IV, 22; Marshall's Wash- 
ington, IV, 367. 

It is said that Antony Cierlang and Tim Sharp, of Elizabeth, were also 
hired by Clinton to carry his proposals to the Jersey mutineers.— PuA/;'f 
Papcri of Governor George Clinton, I'll, ,/c)j. 



360 History of Chatham 

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO COLONEL DAYTON. 

Head Quarters, New Windsor, Feby 7th. 178L 
Dear Sir: 

I find by the Arrangement of the Jersey Brigade, which has 
just come to hand, that Colo. Shreve has retired from Service — this 
makes your presence extremely necessary with the Troops; and the 
more so at this time, as some dispute about rank is said to exist 
between Lt. Col. Barber & Lt. Col. Ic. Hart, which, while there is 
no superior Officer, both of them may produce parties and cabals, 
to the great detriment of the service. 

Altho' your health should not be perfectly established, I cannot 
but hope you will have so far recovered as to be able to join and 
continue with the Brigade; I would not wish you to expose yourself, 
or attempt impossibilities, but I am certain you will be persuaded of 
the necessity of being with your Troops at such a critical and inter- 
esting period. Even if you are but in a convalescent state, I should 
suppose you might obtain such comfortable accommodations abroad, 
as would promote your recovery as effectually as at home — especially 
since you will find the Brigade at so small a distance from Morris- 
town. 

I am. Dear Sir, With great esteem, Your most Obedt Hble 

Servt 

Go. Washington. 

Col. Dayton.* 

COLONEL DAYTON TO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

Chatham Feby 17th 1781. 
Sir 

I had the honour to receive your Excellencys letter of the 
7th instant four days since. I am sorry to acquaint your excellency 
that my health is not yet as well established as I could wish, being 
at present exceedingly troubled with a swelling on my thigh, which 
has confined me closely for a fortnight past, it however bears a 
favourable appearance & I expect to be able to join the troops in a 
few days. This your excellency may rely upon my doing, as soon 

' Magarine of American History, XX, 139. 



Clinton's Secret Intelligence 361 

as I am able to sit on horseback. It has been intimated to me that 
General Washington disapproved of the measures adopted & pursued 
with the Jersey mutineers, and my not hearing anything from the 
General in answer to my letter on that subject increased my sus- 
picion that my conduct had not been approved. As nothing can give 
me greater pain than your excellency's displeasure I could wish to 
be informed what part of my conduct was conceived to be reprehen- 
sible, that I might clear it up as I am convinced I could to the satis- 
faction of even,- one. I never wished for lenient steps with the 
insurgents but would gladly have been concerned in cutting a num- 
ber of their throats if the officers, Commissioners and Militia whom 
I consulted had agreed in the propriety of such a Measure. 

I am your excellency most Obedient & Humble Servant 

Eli AS Dayton. 
P. S. 20th. 

A vessel from General Arnold has arrived at New York in a 
short passage & brought accounts of his being in a hobble, as they 
term it themselves, one french ship of the line and two frigates are 
anchored opposite him in such a manner as to prevent his getting off 
without assistance from New York. 

The enclosed is a letter from an Old corrispondent in New 
York. 

Elias Dayton.^ 

An interesting source of information concerning the 
details of the Jersey mutiny is a manuscript volume con- 
taining the reports of British spies. The original, which is 
known as Sir Henry Clinton's Record of Secret Daily In- 
teligence, is contained in the Emmet collection of manuscripts 
in the New York public library; and has been published 
in Volume X of the Magazine of American History. The 
reports were inscribed by several different hands, but most 
of the writing is thought to be that of Sir George Beckwith. 
The references to the insurrection, which are given below, 
commence with an entry dated January 21st. 

Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 46, 238. 



362 History of Chatham 

Gould came in this Morning at 10 o'Clock from Elizabeth- 
town. On Sunday Morning the Jersey Brigade, part of which lay 
at Pompton, mutinied & seized two field pieces & joined the rest of 
the Brigade at Chatham. He saw some of them, whose complaints 
were about pay &c. They told him they were determined, unless 
they got redress, to join the british. One Grant, a Sergeant Major 
& a deserter from the british Army, commands them. 

They say'd they would come to Elizabethtown. The Militia 
are turned out to oppose them, and this morning he heard a very 
heavy firing and some cannon, and afterwards passing Shots towards 
Elizabethtown by Springfield. A violent Storm prevented his com- 
ing in before. 

Woodrufi says the same. 

A Cousin of his, one NichoUs, is sworn to command. 

Information of Cap'n G. of one of the Massachusetts Regiments. 

20th January The Jersey brigade consists of 500 men ; half 

at Chatham, the rest at Pompton. 

Letter from Majr McKenzie to Majr DeLancey at Staten Isl- 
and, dated N. York, Janry 26th. 1781. 

Dr Major: 

One Jonas Crane came from Newark, left that on Wednesday, 
and was sent from Bergen Point, at 3 o'Clock yesterday, but did 
not arrive here till 12 last night, and only came to the office this 
morning at ]/! past 10. The account he brings is, that on Wednes- 
day while he was at a tavern at Newark, a Coll Courtland came in 
to desire the Major of militia, who kept the House, to call out the 
■ Militia, but very soon after a Major Cummins and Lieut. Ray of 
the 2d. N. Jersey Reg. came in & said he need not order them out, 
as the affair was settled. That it was agreed to appoint Commis- 
sioners on both sides to settle matters in the same manner as had 
been done with the Pennsylvanians ; they were to meet on Monday 
or tuesday at Chatham, for the troops there, and again at Pompton for 
the others who had marched back. Coll Dayton was chosen by the 
troops, for one, on their part. Their demands the same as the Pennsyl- 
vanians — There was no person killed or wounded — There was some 
firing but the officers say'd it was when the two divisions joined. 



Clinton's Sfxret Intelligence 363 

The above Man is gone to Newark and intends to return this 
Evening with two men to Bergen Point. I have desired him to take 
them immediately to you at Bankers. 

Y"- T. Mc. 

Extract of a letter from Jerse}-, Jany 26. (To Peter Dubois.) 

A Committee of Officers from the Jerse\ Brigade, were witii 
the Assembly endeavouring to adjust matters so as to pacify the sol- 
diers as well as officers; The former not having received any pay for 
a considerable time, & the depreciated state of the money such, that 
they could do nothing with it in case they got it. This was the situa- 
tion of matters when the revolution took place with the Pennsyl- 
vania line; The Officers' committee catched the opportunity and 
insisted to be paid at 75 for one. The Assembly took fright and 
instantly complied, and likewise order'd all the Money then in the 
treasury to be sent up to the Men, with other promises, to quiet them, 
such as a redress of any grievances they might labour under, dis- 
charges for those whose terms were expired, &c. &:c. After waiting 
some days and finding nothing but promises without performance, 
and the New Money they had received would purchase nothing but 
Rum, they on Sunday came to the resolution of quitting their huts 
at Pompton, and marched off to join their brethren at Chatham. 
Some of the officers who had made themselves obnoxious to them 
they whip'd; some of the others remain with them. A Sergt Majr 
they chose for their commander, and the rest of the Officers from 
among themselves. They remain at Chatham and methods are 
taken by the Officers, who they suffer among them to reconcile mat- 
ters. Such of them as are entitled to discharges will get them, and 
the remainder bought ofif with a little rum, fair promises, & some 
more money. I cannot learn that their intentions at present arc far- 
ther than having redress, which they will obtain, as far as it is in 
the power of Congress to grant it 

27th Janry. Intelligence by Mr. J — 

The Jersey Brigade are gone back to their huts at Pompton on 
thursday last about 3 o'Clock. The three Years Men are promised 
their discharges. These include the whole except about one hun- 



364 History of Chatham 

dred & fifty who acknowledge their enlistments for the War. 

All those who cannot produce their certificates their Oaths are 
taken. The Officers who commanded them were one Grant, the 
second NichoUs, & the third Jno Minthorn. They permit Dayton, 
Spencer & Ogden to command them in future. All the rest they 
reject. The Of?rs they refused to serve under declare their senti- 
ments that Examples ought to be made of them ; but the three above 
mentioned oppose it. Those discharged are also to be paid off. 

On their first turning out they surrounded the house of an 
Officer (whose name he does not recollect) broke it open and 
forced him with threats of immediate death to give up the muster 
Rolls 

Janry 18th [28th.] 1781. 

A person sent out says that Genl Howe with a party of about 
one thousand of the N England troops, marched down the night 
before last to Pompton & met the Jersey Brigade ; That he seized 
upon near si.vty who were lodged in Morristown gaol. That about 
100 escaped & took the road to Sussex and as is supposed intend 
joining the Indians. A Proclamation was issued offering pardon 
to all who should come in. About 200 came in in consequence of 
it. He saw the party putting the prisoners into gaol. The officers 
were at Chatham disputing among themselves about the conduct of 
the Men, some saying they were right, and ought to be discharged ; 
others the contrary. 20 or 30 say'd they would resign. The Dragoons 
were sent after the 100 that escaped. 

Copy of a letter from Mr. J. at Elizabethtown. rec'd Feb'ry 
7th. 1781. 

Sir, 

I rec'd your two notes by Gould & VVoodroff on thursday last. 
I informed you in my last letter that the N Jersey troops had 
revolted ; about four hundred from Pompton joined those at Chatham 
on Sunday week. On Monday Mr Caldwell and Coll Frelinhausen 
commissioners from the legislature of New Jersey, with Coll Day- 
ton and Shrive, persuaded them to return to Pompton with a promise 
that every grievance should be redressed, they accordingly returned 
on Wednesday under that expectation ; but ^Vashington foreseeing 



Clinton's Sfxret Intelligence 365 

the consequence that would inevitably attend these mutineers, unless 
supressed, detached Genl Howe from N Windsor with one thousand 
Connecticut troops who surprised the Jersey troops in their huts on 
Saturday last. They immediately disarmed them and on Sunday 

shot Uavid Gilmour & J. ^"uttlc as principals in the mutiny 

You may be assured the J troops knew of the terms offered by you 
to the Pennsylvanians, but I don't think they had it in view to come 
to you. They are so connected by relationship in this Country, that 
nothing but a total despair of redress of grievances would induce 
them to come over to you ' 

' Some further items are quoted from Clinton's Record of Secret Intelli- 
gence which are of interest in connection with the history of Chatham: 

Extract of a letter from Capn Beckwith, dated 16th. Mav 1781 
Dear Sir, 

Captn Hatfield informes me, that he had reed information from Jersey 
that above one hundred of the detachment of the Jersey troops, sent with 
Fayette to the Southward, had deserted to us somewhere near Petersburgh 
& nearly in one body; this was mentioned by an Officer of the Jersey troops 
quartered near Chatham. He likewise tells me, that the twelve 'Months 
men are under orders to March towards the frontiers, the Indians being 
very troublesome in that Quarter. 

Vrs. (^ R 

From Captn Beckwith, 5th. July, 1781. 

,, •. They report that the Jersey brigade are to march this 

Morning from Pompton and Chatham, to join Genl Washington. They are 
supposed to be about 500. Thev cannot tell where thev are to cross the 
North River. 

Intelligence by J— S— M— 6th. July, 1781. 

A few days ago I received information by one that acts as an Aide 
to Col: D — that they were to march on Thursday Morning towards King's 
Ferry. 1 thought it might be premature. They have marched. He told me 
that Col: O— believed that General W— expected a French fleet to act in 
Conjunction to attack N. Y. 

From F. 
favoured by J. T. J. July 6th. 1781. 

From Col: Robinson, 12th. July, 1781. Intelligence by Moses Ogden, 
11th. July, 6 in the morning. 

The Jersey brigade under Dayton, about 300 or .350 men, marched last 
Sunday for King's Ferry. 

The Jersey Assembly have agreed to call the I6th. part of the militia 
into 3 months' service; to be commanded bv a Mr. Hoagland Likewise 
ordered 400 men to the Jersey brigade during the War. To give a bounty 
of 12 pounds hard cash pr man, and to raise the money immediately bv 
tax &c. -■..'.' 

[Subsequent reports of spies raised the number of New Jersey troops 
to 600, and later to 800.] 

This book of Sir Henry Clinton's is accompanied in the New York public 
library by a companion volume, also in manuscript, containing information 
brought to him by deserters from the American army. The following quo- 



366 History of Chatham 

The uprising of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey lines, 
though regarded as a most unfortunate calamity at the time, 
was not without a beneficial effect. Public attention was 
directed more strongly to the imperative needs of the army, 
and the authorities realized that something must be done to 
alleviate the sufferings of the troops. They soon raised a 
sum equivalent to three months' pay in specie, which they 
sent to the soldiers, either as a gift, or on account of the 
depreciation of their salaries. This money, though falling 
far short of the amount due, was thankfully received by the 
men as evidence of a bona fide effort to improve their con- 
dition; and by this and other means the government suc- 
ceeded in checking the further progress of insubordination.' 

The village of Chatham is mentioned in connection with 
the hostihties between the "Back Shad" and the "Inhabi- 
tants of Newark," in the latter part of May, 1781. "Back 
shad" was a term used in those days to describe the thin, 
weak shad returning to the sea after spawning in April and 
May. The name was derisively applied to a number of 
people living near Newark Mountains, as Orange was then 
called, who appear to have been whigs, while the "in- 
habitants of Newark" were tories. The following report of 
the matter was published in Rivington's Royal Gazette of 

tatioii which is selected bec.iuse of its mention of Chatham, is a fair example 

of the whole: ^, ^, ,_„„ 

Novemr 21st. 1780. 

George Hazel), a Waggoner in the Rebel Army left Chatham last Sat- 
urday by Cheapside, Squier Town, Newark, ic Gen' 

Washington's Quarters are at Colo Dyers near the Falls Provis- 
ions a pound of fresh Beef and ditto Flour The Army is better 

clothed than ever he saw them The Pennsylvanians are ordered 

to the Southward Maryland Regiment went a Week ago to Le- 
banon ■&€ The heavy Baggage is moved oflf to New Windsor. 

The Ground for Huts is marked out, New Germantown between. 
...... Morristown and Pluckemin The reason for their send- 
ing away the heavy Baggage is that they intend attacking Staten Island. 

' Marshall's Washington, IV, 369. Money was also raised for the sol- 
diers by popular subscription. General Lafayette donated 100 guineas. — 
Parsons' K^ashington, 74. 



Proceedings of the "Back Shad" 367 

New York under date of June 21st, and was considered by 
Frank Moore of sufficient interest to be copied in his Diary 
of the Revolution. 

JUNE 1. We hear from Newark in New Jersey, that a few- 
days since a number of persons who live in the mountains, and from 
their wickedness and poverty have properly acquired the appellation 
of the BACK SHAD, in consequence of a resolution of the pious 
Reverend Commissary Caldwell, and his associates, who were lately 
convened at Chatham, repaired to the learned and revered Justice 
Campbell, and there agreeably to the directions of a late law made 
by the humane William Livingston, swore that a number of the 
inhabitants of the township of Newark, were dangerous to the lib- 
erties of the State, and ought to be removed back into the country, 
whereupon this great Magistrate issued his warrant for their re- 
moval ; and gave them till this day to prepare for their departure ; 
this will probably create some disturbance, as our informant tells us 
that the obnoxious inhabitants refuse to go unless compelled by force. 




CHAPTER X\T 

Movements of the Northern Army during the Yorktown Cam- 
paign — Washington threatens an Attack upon New York to 
cover his March to Virginia — A permanent Encampment 
established at Chatham— Bake-Ovens constructed by Roch- 
beau's Commissar> — Great quantities of Stores collected— 
The American Troops halt at Chatham and Springfield, the 
French at Whippany — Washington's Headquarters at Chatham 
— Newspaper Comments and Military Correspondence — The 
March toward the South suddenly and unexpectedly re- 
sunied — Success of Washington's Stratagem. 

IN the summer of 1781, while the Americans led by 
Lafayette were confronting the British under Corn- 
wallis in the Virginia campaign which terminated with the 
surrender at Yorktown, Washington was engaged with Sir 
Henry Clinton at New Y'ork. The American commander 
was well informed of the situation in the South; and upon 
learning that the French fleet of Count de Grasse had sailed 
from the West Indies for Chesapeake Bay to co-operate 
with Lafayette, he concluded that if the forces in Virginia 
could be sufficiently strengthened before the arrival of 
British reinforcements from New York, the defeat of Corn- 
wallis was quite within the bounds of probability. The 
stratagem which suggested itself to his mind was to march 
rapidly southward and join the army before Yorktown, at 
the same time causing the enemy to believe that an attack 
upon New York was the object of his manoeuvre, so that it 
would not occur to Clinton to move to the support of Corn- 
wallis until too late. The manner in which he accomplished 
this ruse de guerre, and completely outwitted his adversary, 
despite the activities of the British spies by whom the country 



Washington's Strategy 369 

was infested, was one of the most brilliant and masterful 
achievements of his military career.' 

For a period of two months the commander-in-chief, by 
his constant marches and countermarches in the territory 
lying north of New York, convinced Sir Henry Clinton that 
an attack upon that city was momentarily to be expected. 
Early in July the latter was informed that Washington, who 
was then at Dobbs' Ferry, had been joined by the Count de 
Rochambeau with a strong detachment of French troops 
from Newport; and his anxiety was heightened by the in- 
telligence that on the 22nd of the month the Allies had ap- 
proached the heights of Harlem, and were reconnoitring 
m the neighborhood of his outposts. So threatening indeed 
was the attitude of his opponents, that, despite the strength 
of his garrison and the proximity of a powerful British fleet, 
he dared not weaken his position by dispatching reinforce- 
ments to the support of the army which had been sent to the 
South. 

Toward the end of August, Washington decided that 
the time had come for carrying his project into effect. He 
crossed the Hudson at King's Ferry, and commenced a 
southerly march through New Jersey; but, in order that 
Clmton might have no suspicion of the truth, he caused a 
rumor to be circulated among the patriots, through whom it 
reached the ears of the tories and was by them communicated 

„T \T^"^ ^^^ ^^^" "i"ch dispute among historians as to whether or not 
V\ ashinglon really intended to attacli New Vorl(. The statements in the text 
are based upon a letter written by him to Noah Webster after the close of 
the war, m which he said: "It never was in contemplation to attack New 
lork, unless the garrison should first have been so far degarnished to 
carry on the southern operations, as to render our success in the siege of 
that place as infallible as any future militarv event can ever be made. 
That much trouble was taken and finesse "used to misguide and bewilder 
Sir Henry Clinton in regard to the real object, bv fictitious communications 
as well as by making a deceptive provision of ovens, forage, and boats in 
his neighborhood, is certain."— fon/V Ifritinos of H'askingtim, XI. -'97 On 
the other hand, there is strong evidence that the southern movement was 
the conception of the Chevalier de la Luzerne, French Minister to the United 
States, and that the plan was at first rejected by Washington, who declared 
his intention of laying siege to New York; from which project he was 
dissuaded, with some difficulty, by Rochambeau. 



370 History of Chatham 

to the British, that he was preparing to attack New York 
by way of Staten Island, in co-operation with the French 
fleet, which, it was announced, was to enter the harbor and 
bombard the city. He wrote fictitious dispatches alluding 
to this proposed plan which were cleverly allowed to fall 
into the hands of British spies;' and was equally careful to 
mislead his own officers and those of Rochambeau, believing, 
as he wrote in a subsequent letter, that "where the imposition 
does not completely take place at home, it would never 
sufficiently succeed abroad."- 

As a further means to insure the success of his artifice, 
Washington decided to pause for a few days on his march 
to Virginia, and to concentrate his forces in the vicinity of 
Chatham," within striking distance of Staten Island, as 
though gathering strength for the onslaught; and elaborate 
preparations for what was generally believed to be a per- 
manent encampment were accordingly made in this village, 
including the building of a bakery, and possibly the erection 
of storehouses and similar buildings as well. This work 
was intrusted to the Chevalier de Villemanzy, a commissary 
of war under Rochambeau, who, with fourteen or fifteen 
French artificers, was sent to Chatham in advance of the 
army to superintend the construction of the ovens, and to 
make a demonstration of collecting great quantities of stores, 
in order to confirm the popular belief that this point was to 
form the base of operations against Staten Island and New 
York.* Mention is made of the erection of storehouses, 
but the reference is not sufficiently definite and reliable to 

' Headley's Lafayette, 192; Tower's Lafayette in the Am. Rev., I, 267, n. 

"Ford's Writings of Washington, XL 294. 

° Sir Henry Clinton, writing to Lord Cornwallis, on August 27., that the 
enemy had foraged within six miles of his lines, continues: "This small 
movement was made on the 18th., they fell back on the 19th., and passed 
the Croton; afterwards crossed the Hudson at King's-Ferry, and are now 
encamped in the neighbourhood of Chatham." — Clinton-Cornwallis Contro- 
versy, II, 142. 

' Balch's The French in America, I, 172. 



f6 ft H 



S,; g 




Encampment at Chatham 371 

enable us to state with certainty whether the provisions were 
stored in buildings especially erected for the purpose, rather 
than in the neighboring houses and barns.' General Stryker, 
however, is quite positive that magazines for military stores 
were built.- Ten days are said to have been devoted to these 
preparations.' The satisfactory manner in which De Ville- 
manzy discharged this commission seems to have been 
regarded as the most important service of his American cam- 
paign, as it is particularly mentioned in the short bio- 
graphical notes contained In Balch's history of the French 
troops in the Revolutionary War. The biographer adds that 
the chevalier "got himself cannonaded," and kept the gar- 
rison at New York constantly on the alert. He died a peer 
of France in the reign of Charles X.^ 

' Count Jean Axel de Fersen, one of Rochambeau's aides-de-camp, 
wrote to his father in Sweden: "Everything seemed to announce a siege of 
New York. The estaWlishment of a bakery and other storehouses at Chat- 
ham, 4 miles distant from Staten Island ; our passage of the North River, 
and march toward Morristovvn seemed to indicate that we intended to 
attack Sandy Hook to facilitate the entrance of our vessels. We were not 
long in seeing that our views were not turned upon New York, but Gen- 
eral Clinton was entirely deceived; that was precisely what we wished." 

Mnyazine of American History, III, ^jS. 

Washington feignit de ganger Staten-Island et Paulus Hook, et Rocham- 
beau, pour accrediter I'erreur, dit a M. de Villemanzy, commissaire des 
guerres, d'aller construire des fours pres de Chatham. — Chotteau's La Guerre 
dt' I'lnJt'pt'riJtint'f, jSo. 

On descend ensuite la rive droit jusqu'aupres de Staten Island, a Chat- 
am, 6u M. de Villemanzy avait fort judicieusement etabli des fours et 

concentre des approvisionnemcntes, en vue de I'attaque de New York. 

Noailtes's Marins & Soldals Francais en Amerique, sjj. 

M. de Rochambeau leur avait fait croire que son projet etait d'attaquer 
New-York, ayant envoye un commissaire des guerres intelligent avec une 
forte escorte etablir des fours et des magasins a Chatam, pres New-York. — 
Luzerne's Memoirs, .?^7. 

' The New Jersey Continental Line at Yorktown, 11. 

* Moore's Diary of the Revolution, 466. 

* Claude Blanchet, a commissary of the French army in America, set 
out on the first of September to follow and overtake the troops on their 
march to Virginia. Describing the journey in his diary, he writes in part: 
"On the same day I came to spend the night at Bullion's Tavern, after 
having passed through Chatham, a village where our ovens had been set 
up, which I was well pleased to visit, which caused me to go five miles 
farther and prevented my passing through Morristown, where General 
Washington had his quarters for a long time, and where the ."Kmericans 
have some iron works as at Peekskill ; I also lost the opportunity of visiting 
the country house of Lord Stirling, that American general whose nobility is 
somewhat contested." — Balch's Blanc/iefs Journal, (Duane's Trans.) 1^3. 



372 History of Chatham 

The following war-time letter relates to Villemanzy's 
operations at Chatham, and indicates that while in this 
village he and his men were billeted in private houses: 

Morristown, Aug. 13, 81. 

Dear Sir: 

These Gentlemen will call on you for Billots for fifteen artifi- 
cers of the French Army which I must beg you to grant them like- 
wise every other assistance and direction that you can give them, 
both to facilitate their Business and ease the inhabitants. 

These men tell me that the whole of the French Army are on 
the march to this State, that 20 ships have arrived at the Hook and 
that New York will very soon be invested. 
I am. Sir, 

Yr. hum. Sevt., 

Cha Farman, Q. M. V. 
To Benjamin Day, Esq., 

Chatham.^ 

No record has been found in which the exact size of the 
ovens is given. They are described by Elias Boudinot as 
"very large";- and we can have no doubt that the bakery 
was built on an extensive scale, for it said to have been 
capable of supplying bread rations daily for 3,000 men.^ 

Owing to the erection of the ovens, which remained 
standing and were the subject of remark for several years, 
the location of the camp-ground was not lost sight of, like 
many other points of interest in the village. Dr. Samuel L. 
Tuttle, while gathering material for a history of Madison in 
1855, conversed with Enos Bonnel, an aged resident of this 
neighborhood, who pointed out to him the spot where the 
ovens had stood, and said that he clearly remembered them. 
The encampment covered the fields at present owned by 

'Morristown Daily Record, August 3, 1917. 

' Boudinot's Elias Boudinot, I, 231. 

" Carrington's Washington the Soldier, 336. 



The Bakery 373 

George B. Vanderpoel and by the Prospect Hill Land Com- 
pany, lying south of the turnpike and east of River Road 
on the Union County side of the Passaic; the bakery stand- 
ing on the property now belonging to Mr. Vanderpoel. 

The ovens were contained in a shed about four rods 
in length running parallel with the turnpike and a short dis- 
tance from it, nearly opposite the present residence of Mrs. 
Mary C. Allen:' and as they were solidly built of brick, they 
remained long after the shed had disappeared; but their site 
was marked until a much later period by the luxurience of 
the crops, the soil at that place having been fertilized by 
the deposit of ashes. Tradition fails to indicate the time 
when the ovens were destroyed. The late William C. 
Wallace, who owned the property for many years during 
the middle of the last century, and who came to Chatham 
in 1829, used to say that they had been demolished before 
his arrival, but he did not know at what date. Neither can 
it be stated whether they were overthrown by human agency 
or by the action of the elements. For a long time the bricks 
lay scattered over that portion of the field; but during the 
past twenty-five years they have been gradually removed In 
the process of clearing the land of loose stones to facilitate 
cultivation. A few copper coins have been found from time 
to time on the site of the encampment which are thought to 
have been lost by the soldiers. Though considerably worn 
and corroded, they have been recognized as English half- 
pennies of the reign of George II. 

On August 19th, Washington detached Colonel Moses 
Hazen's regiment and two regiments of the New Jersey 
line under Colonel Ellas Dayton, and ordered them to 
Chatham to guard the bakery until the arrival of the army." 
He wrote to Dayton : 

' Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 336. 
• Johnston's The Yorktown Campaign, 88. 



374 History of Chatham 

Head Quarters 19th Augt. 17S1. 
Sir 

You will march immediately with the Jersey Line and Hazens 
Regt. to the Heights between Chatham and Springfield. You will 
take the most eligible position and encamp there. You will give 
Coll. Seely orders to remain at Dobb's Ferry untill Wednesday 
when he is to march and join you. You will order him, in a very 
particular manner, to keep scouts and patroles towards Bergen and 
to take everj' precaution against a surprise. 

There will be a French Bakery established at Chatham. You 
are to furnish a small Guard for it and give them any assistance they 
may want.' 

From the 20th to the 25th of August the commander- 
in-chief was busily employed in transporting the aUied armies 
across the Hudson at King's Ferry. He took with him on 
the march to Virginia all of Rochambeau's forces and most 
of the American troops, leaving General Heath with 3,000 
militia at Verplank's Point to guard the Highlands. After 
crossing the Hudson the army formed in four divisions — 
two American and two French. General Lincoln, with the 
First New York regiment and Scammel's corps of light in- 
fantry, which latter had lain in camp at Kakeat since the 
night of August 19th, advanced by way of Paramus, 
Acquackanack (Passaic) and Second River (Belleville) to 
Springfield, where they arrived and encamped on the 27th 
of August.- The American main column included the park 
of artillery under Colonel Lamb, Colonel Olney's Rhode 
Island regiment, part of the Second New York regiment 
(the full quota of which had not arrived from Albany w-hen 
the army left the Hudson), two light companies of New 
York and two of Connecticut, a small corps of engineers, 
sappers and miners, Washington's baggage, the baggage of 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B, XIV, pt. 1, 399. 
" Magazine of American History, V, 7; Thatcher's Military Journal, 
259, 323. 



• Arrival of the Troops 375 

the artillery, ammunition, stores of all kinds, and thirty flat- 
boats, each capable of holding forty men, which had been 
mounted on carriages, and were thought to be designed for 
the passage of Staten Island Sound, though they were really 
intended for use in Virginia.' This division marched by 
way of Pompton, Montville, Troy, Whippany, Florham 
Park and Madison to Chatham, and pitched their tents on 
the camp-ground where Dayton's troops had preceded 
. them. The impression was made upon the entire com- 
munity, and shared by the soldiers themselves, that not only 
these regiments, but possibly the entire army, was to be 
stationed at Chatham for a long time. Dr. Tuttle in his 
History of Madison states that Azariah Carter recalled 
having seen the troops pass through that village on the way 
to Chatham, and that he, together with Ichabod Bruen, 
Captain Luke Carter, and others, had a distinct recollection 
of the impression made upon every mind that the army was 
to be permanently quartered here. The number of these 
troops cannot be stated with accuracy. The total American 
force in Washington's army is \-ariously given as 2,000 and 
3,000 ;■• of whom by far the greater number encamped at 
Chatham. 

The forces of Rochambeau, who followed the Amer- 
icans from the Hudson, also formed in two divisions, both 
taking the same route; the first column marching twenty- 
four hours in advance of the second. The course from the 
Hudson to the Delaware which Washington had mapped 
out for them was by way of Suffern, Pompton, Whippany, 
Bullion's Tavern, Somerset Court House, Princeton and 
Trenton. ■* On the 27th the first division, consisting of the 
legion of Lau/un and the regiments of Bourbonnais and 

Magazine of American History, V, 7; VH, 12S. 
■ Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 336. 
IV ' J"*^"*'""'' '^''^ Vorktown Campaign, 87; Marshall's Washington, 

' Ford's Writings of Washington, IX, 343, n. 



376 



History of Chatham 



Deux Fonts, with the park of heavy artillery, reached 
Whippany and encamped between that village and Hanover, 
where they were soon joined by the second column, which 
included the regiments of Soissonais and Saintogne/ About 

this time it was whispered 
among the French officers 
by those professing to have 
received authoritative in- 
formation that their objec- 
tive point was Yorktown, 
and not Staten Island; but 
so impenetrable was the veil 
of secrecy which concealed 
Washington's design, that 
the Duke of Deux Fonts, 
who commanded the regi- 
ment which bore his name, 
confessed in his diary as 
late as the 26th that he was 
totally in the dark as to the object of the march.' The 
soldiers were soon enlightened, however, for upon leaving 
Whippany the French column, instead of advancing upon 
New York, turned about and marched through Morristown 
toward the south, thus solving the mystery which had puz- 
zled them so long. 

Dr. James Thatcher, who was then surgeon of Scam- 
mel's light infantry, thus described the situation by entries 
made contemporaneously in his Military Journal: 

The real object of the allied armies [in] the present campaign 
has become a subject of much speculation. Ostensibly an invest- 
ment of the city of New York is in contemplation — preparations in 
all quarters for some months past, indicate this to be the object of 

' Magazine of American History, V', 7. 

' Forbach (Count de Deux Fonts) My Campaigns in America (Green's 
Trans.), 124. 




Bourbon Royal Standard 



Perplexity of the Soldiers 377 

our combined operations The success of a siege must depend 

entirely on the arrival and co-operation of a superior French fleet. 
The enemy have a garrison on Staten Island, which is separated from 
Long Island only by a strait two miles w ide. The capture of tiiis 
garrison would be a brilliant affair, and would essentially facilitate 
our operations against New York. General Washington and Count 
Rochambeau have crossed the North river, and it is supposed for the 
purpose of reconnoitering the enemy's posts from the Jersey shore. 
A field for an extensive encampment has been marked out on the 
Jersey side, and a number of ovens have been erected and fuel pro- 
vided for the purpose of baking bread for the army. From these 
combined circumstances we are led to conclude, that a part of our 

beseiging force is to occupy that ground 

Our situation reminds me of some theatrical exhibition where 
the interest and expectations of the spectators are continually increas- 
ing, and where curiosit\- is wrought to the highest point. Our 
destination has been for some time [a] matter of perplexing doubt 
and uncertainty; bets have run high on one side, that we were to 
occupy the ground marked out on the Jersey shore, to aid in the 
siege of New York, and on the other, that we are stealing a march 
on the enemy, and are actually destined to Virginia, in pursuit of 
the armv under Lord Cornwallis. 

The passage given below is a quotation from the 
autobiography of Brigadier-General Philip Van Courtlandt 
of the New York Continental line. 

All my regiment having joined at and near Schenectad)', I 
marched and encamped on the Patroon's Flats. I had then the 
largest and most healthy regiment in America, not excepting French, 
English or German, and a fine band of music. Here I had to 
remain for the completing of thirty-four boats, now building there 
for the purpose, as reported, of taking our army from Elizabethtown 
to Staten Island as soon as the French fleet would appear off Sand\- 
Hook in order to take New York. 

Count Rochambeau, having marched from Rhode Island with 
the French forces, had advanced to the lines in Westchester County 
near King's Bridge; some part of our army already in New Jersey, 



378 History of Chatham 

and all things ready, the French fleet daily expected, I received orders 
to take the boats, regiment and baggage, &c. and proceed down the 
Hudson to Stony Point. Landed and encamped ; remained there 
while the French passed, and some time after, until information 
came that General Washington himself was at the ferry and wished 
to see me. Upon approaching him he took me by the arm and went 
some distance on the road, and gave me his orders both written and 
verbal, which was to march to Cliatham in New Jersey, take all tlie 
boats, intrenching tools, &c. and proceed with deliberation, inform- 
ing him daily of my progress, for which purpose he sent a dragoon 
every day, as my command was of great importance, being the rear 
guard of the army. Upon my arrival at Pompton Plains he altered 
my route, but at my request permitted me to take a more circuitous 
one through Parcipany — the road being better passing Mr. Lett's 
and Beaverhout' — but not to pass the junction of the Morristown 
road with the Chatiiam road until the next morning; then, instead 
of going to the latter, I must pass through Morris and make an 
expeditious march to Trenton; and enjoined secrecy for three days." 

WASHINGTON'S INSTRUCTIONS 
TO VAN COURTLANDT. 

Sir, 

You will take charge of the Cloathing, the Boats, Intrenching 
Tools — and such other Stores as shall be committed to your care by 
the Quarter Masr. General, with these you are to proceed (in 
the order they are mentioned) to Springfield by the way of Sufferans, 
Pompton, the two Bridges and Chatham. 

When you arrive at Springfield you will put yourself under the 
order of Major Genl. Lincoln or any other your superior officer 
commanding at that place. You will also if occasion should require 
it alter the above route agreeably to orders from either Majr. Genl. 
Lincoln or the Qr. Mr. General. You will be particularly careful 

'The farms of Abraham Lott and Lucas Beaverhout lay near the 
intersection of the Parsippany turnpike and the road leading from Troy 
Hills to Lower Montville. 

' Magazine of American History, H, 278. 



Washington- .\r Chatham 379 

to collect all your men that are in a proper condition to march and 
will use your best endeavors to prevent desertion. 

Given at King's Ferry this 25 day of Augt 1781. 

Go. Washington. 
To Colonel Cortland.^ 

Respecting the time of the arrival and departure of the 
troops at Chatham there is some uncertainty. Washington 
states in his journal that the two American columns reached 
the places assigned them (meaning Chatham and Spring- 
field), on August 28th, and that the army resumed its march 
on the 30th r but his correspondence indicates that they ar- 
rived on the 27th and left on the 29th. His letter of instruc- 
tions to Lincoln at Springfield, directing the further move- 
ment of the latter's division, is dated August 28th, and 
orders him to march at four o'clock the next morning; and 
there seems to be no doubt that the entire army started on 
the same day. We learn from the following news-item pub- 
lished in the Nezv Jersey Joiinial that the general and his 
staff arrived at Chatham on Sunday the 26th, at least one 
day in advance of the troops. 

CHATHAM, August 29. Last Sunday his Excellency Gen- 
eral Washington, with his suit, arrived here, and remained until this 
morning, when, putting the army in motion, he took his departure. 

The movement of the troops was mentioned in other 
newspapers, from which a few excerpts are given. 

NEW YORK, Aug. 27. The Rebel Army under the Com- 
mand of General Washington, left their encampment at the White 
Plains last Monday ; and we hear some of the Continental Troops are 
gone up the North River; the French Army crossed the Hudson on 
the 23d. Instant, and proceeded on their March for Chatham, eight 

' Magazine of American History, IV, 142. 
-Ihid., Vn, 125. 



380 History of Chatham 

miles from Elizabeth Town, where their Artificers have been build- 
ing Ovens, &c. for more than ten days. Part of Dayton's Brigade 
are also at Chatham, and a York Provincial Regiment is now sta- 
tioned at a place called Fox-Hall, [Vauxhall] 4 Miles from Newark, 
and 7 from Elizabeth Town; so that the Number of Troops now 
in that Neighborhood amount to at least six thousand, and their 
greatest Distance from Staten Island is not more than nine Miles. 
— Gaines's New York Mercury, No. 1558. 

TRENTON, August 29. We hear the Allied Army have 
crossed the North River, and that Head-Quarters are now at Chat- 
ham. 

—The New Jersey Gazette, No. 192. 

NEW YORK, September 3. Our last Paper left Mr. 
Washington and his Army at Chaham, Fox Hall, &c. since which 
we have learnt, That on Tuesday the 28th. ult. it was resolved the 
whole Body should move ; that next Day being Wednesday the 29th. 
they struck their Tents, and the Army consisting of about six thou- 
sand in Number, Marched in three Divisions; that on Thursday 
Evening the Thirtieth the Rear of the whole was at the Hills near 
Bound Brook, and the first Division advanced towards Kingston; 
their Artillery consisted of about 20 pieces of Cannon, 4 large Mor- 
tars, and several Howitzers. Some of their Officers said that the 
French Fleet were arrived at Sandy Hook, and that their Intentions 
were to march to Black Point, and facilitate their Landing, and sec- 
ond their Operations against their common Enemy the English. 

The Inhabitants of Elizabeth Town, Chatham, &c. on Gen- 
eral Washington's passing through them Places, said. What is to be 
our Fate now! In the Winter we were told we should be in New 
York in the Spring; in the Spring we should certainly walk the 
Streets of that Place in September; and now instead of attacking that 
City, supported by a powerful French Navy, our whole Army is 
leaving us to the Merq' of our Enemies. 

— Gaines's New York Mercury, No. 1559. 

On September ist Constant Cooper, a post rider from 
Morristown to Fishkill, was captured by a party of tories 



A Revolutionary Letter 381 

and taken to New York. Some of the letters contained in 
his mail-bag were published in a newspaper, among them 
being a note written by Major Sabastin Bauman of the 
Second Continental artillery to his wife, announcing his ar- 
rival at Chatham. He wrote: 

Chatham, 28th. August, 1781. 
My Dear, 

I have just time to inform you that we arrived here late last 
night, and march again this afternoon for Brunswick, and from thence 
I imagine for Philadelphia, and likely from there to Virginia. How- 
ever this is only present conjecters of mine, probably from this rea- 
son, either to take Lord Cornwallis, or to lay ourselves in such a 
situation, to prevent his getting into New-York by land, which it 
seems from his present situation and movement he means to accom- 
plish, as his communication by water or sea to New- York is broke 
off, and which appears to me his intend, and our present rapid move- 
ment. However all is guess work, and a itw days will reveal the 
whole, as the French fleet with fifteen thousand land forces is 
expected hourly. 

I sent this by way of Post to Fish Kill, thinking it the surest 
way for you to get it, and if you write to me, send your letters by 
Post, directed to headquarters, grand army. 

Michal is well, and so am I, e.xcept a little cold I have which 
plagues me a good deal, my love and respect to all, and remain your 
husband, 

S. Bauman. 

Mrs. Vandyke compliment to you. I had a very good breakfast 
there this morning. 

Mrs. Bauman, Wall Kill 

Good Will Meeting House 
N. B. 

You must send Conrad to follow the army.' 
While General Washington remained in Chatham on 

'Rivington's Roytil Gazelle, September 8, 1781. 



382 History of Chatham 

this occasion he is believed to have had his headquarters in 
the house of Jacob Morrell, now the residence of Frederick 
S. Tallmadge, on the southerly side of Main Street about 
300 yards west of the river. Tradition has always desig- 
nated this house as the local "Headquarters," and as such 
it is mentioned in Barber and Howe's Historical Collections 
of New Jersey; but details are entirely lacking as to the 
length of time, or the period of the war, during which it was 
occupied by the commander-in-chief. We may safely assume, 
however, that it was in August, 1781, when the army en- 
camped here for two or three days; because at no other time, 
as far as we can learn, did the general remain in Chatham so 
long. Dr. Samuel L. Tuttle in his History of Madison, and 
Dr. Ashbel Green in his Autobiography, assure us that 
Washington, while staying at Morristown, often rode 
through Madison and Chatham to the signal station at the 
Short Hills for the purpose of observation, but there is no 
evidence that he stopped in Chatham at such times; and 
although he passed through the village at the head of his 
army on June 7, 1780, halting there for a few hours, he 
probably did not then remain over night. But as there can 
be no question that the Morrell mansion was occupied by 
him at some time during the Revolution, we have no hesi- 
tancy in declaring the occasion to have been in 1871, while 
he was leading his troops on the memorable march to York- 
town. 

Jacob Bonnel, one of the early residents of Chatham, a 
jeweler and clock-maker by trade, used to say that in his 
boyhood he had seen Washington pacing to and fro in Mr. 
Morrell's door-yard, and a similar recollection was cherished 
by Mrs. Sallie Crane. These reminiscences, with the brief 
mention in Barber's Historical Collections, are our only 
authority upon the location of the headquarters, for Wash- 
ington's journal does not refer to the subject, and the part 
of his diary which describes the march to Yorktown makes 



z 

3 

I 

> 

3. z 







Letters of Washington 383 

no mention of Chatham. His presence here is proven by his 
correspondence; but although his letters of that period are 
dated at Chatham, they unfortunately do not indicate the 
house in which he lodged. 

Some of these letters are reproduced from contempor- 
aneous copies now in the Library of Congress. They were 
doubtless written in one of the rooms of the Morrell 
mansion. 

TO LAFAYETTE. 

New Jersey 
Chatham 27th: Augt. 1781. 
My dear Marquis 

Your favr. of the II th did not reach me till yesterday morn- 
mg. I so soon expect to see you that I shall defer entering into a 
particular answer to the Contents, part of which is of a very dis- 
agreeable nature and must be handled delicately. 

The whole force intended for the southward will be assembled 
in this neighbourhood today and tomorrow and will proceed to Tren- 
ton as soon as Craft can be collected there to transport them down 
the Delaware to Christiana. The celerity of their further movement 
will depend upon the arrival of the Count de Grasse and the means 
of transportation which it may be in his power to furnish. 

Supposing the enemy to be held blockaded in certain positions, 
it will be necessary for me to know, beforehand, what will be the 
proper place of debarkation for the French and American Troops, 
that we may steer immediately to that point, and at which there 
should be a collection of draught Horses and Cattle and some Wag- 
gons to move the Artillery and stores which may be necessary for 
the immediate commencement of operations. I am endeavoring to 
send round (but I doubt whether I shall be able to effect it) a small 
supply of salt provisions. Should I fail, the troops will have occa- 
sion for Fresh the instant of their arrival in Virginia. I would 
therefore wish, to avoid disappointment, that some Cattle might be 
prepared at the most probable place of debarkation, and I should 
also wish to know what are the chances or prospects of our supply 
while in Virginia. 



384 History of Chatham 

Your answer to these points will meet me at the Head of Elk 
or upon my way thither, and as there is a possibility that 1 may be 
upon the Bay, you may, if the Navigation is in our possession, send 
a Copy of your dispatches to the Head of Elk by Water. 

Let me know what position you intend to take after you have 
formed a junction with the Troops with Mr. de Grasse, and whether 
you do not think that James Town will be a proper place of debarka- 
tion for us supposing the enemy remain in their present position of 
York and Gloucester? 

I am my dear Marquis sincerely & Affecty Yrs^ 
P. S. What number of intrenching tools have you and of what 
kinds" 

TO COLONEL MILES, D. Q. M. G. 

Head Quarters Chatham Augst. 27th 1781. 
Sir 

In consequence of a total alteration in our Plans, & the move- 
ment of a large Body of Troops to the Southward, I have dispatched 
a Messenger for the sole purpose of having provision made at Tren- 
ton, for the transportation of them to Christian by water. You 
will therefore be pleased to have the greatest possible number of 
Sloops Shallops & river Craft of all kinds, fit for the transportation 
of Men Artillery & Baggage collected from every quarter where 
they can be found & brought to Trenton by the 31st Inst, at which 
time the head of the Column is expected to arrive. Let others be 
procured & ordered to follow to the same place, as fast as may be, 
untill Orders are received to the contrary-. You will use e\-ery 
exertion to have this business carried into execution without loss of 
time. I have also written to Mr. Morris on the subject with whom 
I wish you to converse & advise respecting the Places Mode Sec. of 
obtaining the Craft — and I am persuaded he will afford you any 
assistance in his power. 

I have delayed having these preparation made untill this mo- 
ment, because I wished to deceive the Enemy with regard to our real 
object as long as possible — our Movements have been calculated for 

'Many of these letters are not signed, as they are copies contained in 
the general's letter-books. 

'Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 433. 



Letters of Washington 385 

that purpose, and I am still anxious the deception should be kept up 
a few days longer untill our intentions are announced by the Army's 
filing off — towards the Delaware. These arrangements would have 
been made through the Quarter Master General but he having been 
left at King's Ferry to execute some business in his Department & 
the time uf his arrival being uncertain I have thought proper to 
write to you myself on the subject, and to desire in the most earnest 
manner, that neither labour or expense may be wanting in the per- 
formance of the important business now committed to you. 

I am Sir &c 
P. S. Be so good as to obtain Quarters for Myself & family 
(half a dozen Gentlemen) at some convenient Private Lodgings 
without mentioning particularly who they are if one house will not 
accommodate the whole, the nearer the lodgings are the better. Also 
be pleased to fonvard the Letters to the Southward by Express. 
Col. Miles D. Q. M. G.^ 

TO ROBERT MORRIS. 

To the Honble. Robert Morris Esqr. &c. 

T^ c- Chatham 27th August 1781. 

Dr. Sir *= 

Accounts brought by several Vessels to Philadelphia and to the 
Eastward, leave little doubt but that the Count dc Grasse must have 
already arrived in the Chesapeak, or that he must be very soon there. 
The Count de Rochambeau and myself have therefore determined, 
that no time ought to be lost in making preparations for our trans- 
portation from Trenton to Christiana and from the head of Elk 
down the Chesapeak. I have \\ ritten b\ this opportunity to Colo. 
Miles and have directed him immediately to engage all the proper 
kind of Craft for the Navigation of the Delaware, which can be 
found in Philadelphia or in the Creeks above and below it, and as 
your advice may be useful to him, more especially so far as respects 
procuring the Vessels at a distance from Philadelplu'a, I have desired 
him to wait upon }ou for that purpose. 

I shall also be obliged to jou for using your influence with the 
Gentlemen of Baltimore, to permit any \^cssels which may be in 
that po-t to come up to Elk to assist us in transportation. I have 

' Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 439. 



386 History of Chatham 

little doubt, from the cheerfulness with which they furnished the 
Marquis last Winter, but they will comply with your requisition 
on the present occasion. But lest there should be a necessity for the 
interference of the Executive of the State, I have written to Gov- 
ernor Lee upon that and upon other matters. I enclose the letter 
under flying seal for your information, and you will be good enough 
to forward it by a Chain of Expresses which is established. Any 
Vessel which may be procured in Chesapeak should rendezvous as 
soon as possible at Elk River. 

You will be pleased to make the deposit of Flour, Rum and 
Salt at the Head of Elk, which I requested in a former Letter. 

I am very fearful that about 1500 barrels of Salt Provisions 
and 30 Hogsheads of Rum, which I directed to be sent from Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island under Convoy of the Count de Barras 
would not have been ready when the Fleet sailed from New Port. 
Should that have been the case, the disappointment will be great. 
I would wish you to see whether a like quantity of those Articles 
can be procured in Philadelphia or in Maryland, if we should find 
that they have not gone round from the Eastward. 

I must entreat you, if possible, to procure one months pay in 
specie for the detachment which I have under my Command, part 
of those troops have not been paid any thing for a long time past, and 
have upon several occasions shewn marks of great discontent. The 
service they are going upon, is disagreeable to the Northern Regi- 
ments, but I make no doubt that a douceur of a little hard money 
would put them in proper temper. If the whole sum cannot be 
obtained, a part of it will be better than none, as it may be distrib- 
uted in proportion to the respective wants and Claims of the men. 

The American detachment will assemble in this neighbo\irhood 
to day. The French Army to morrow. 

I have the honour to be &c 

G. Washington.' 

TO ROCHAMBEAU. 

Chatham 27th Augst 1781. 
Sir, 

By intelligence which 1 have received since my arrival at this 
'Washington Papers, A. VI. pt. 1, 241. 



Letters of Washington 387 

place, I find that the enemy have been throwing Troops upon Staten 
Island. This circumstance, and a desire of bringing up the rear 
of the two armies will induce me to halt the American Troops one 
day at Springfield, as I pray your Excellency to do those of the 
French at Whippany. 

This Halt will Occasion no delay, as I could not, before this 
period, take measures to assemble the Vessels of Delaware, at Tren- 
ton, without announcing the object in view; but an Express being 
now gone for that purpose, I shall expect to have at least a part of 
them at that place hy Friday next, to commence the embarkation. 

I shall set out the day after tomorrow for Philadelphia and 
should be glad to know your Excellency's determination respecting 
your journey thither_if to proceed with your Army, we will appoint 
a rendezvous. 

With the greatest respect & personal attachment I have the 
honor to be 

Yr Excellencys Most Obedt & Hbl Servt. 

Go. Washington. - 
His E.\celly. Genl. Rochambeau. 

COLONEL TILGHMAN TO COLONEL 

VAN COURTLANDT. 

Chatham 27th Augt. 1781. 
Dear Sir 

His Excellency desires me to inform vou that he found the 
Road by Ogden's Iron Works difficult for the Boats, he therefore 
wishes you to keep upon the Road from Pompton to Morris Town 
untill you come to a place known by the name of Dodds Tavern you 
there turn to the left and proceed to the Fork of the Passaic— from 
thence you will take the same Road upon which the Artillery moved 
to this place— it is by the way of Colo. Cook's. 

I am Dear Sir Yr. most obt. servt. 

T. TiLGHMAN. 

Colo. Courtland.' 

' Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. I, 439. 



388 History of Chatham 

WASHINGTON TO THOMAS McKEAN. 

Head Qurs. Chatham 27th Augst. 1781. 

Sir 

I have the honour to inform Congress, that my expectation of 
the Arrival of the Fleet of Monsr. De Grasse in the Chesapeak Bay, 
with some other circumstances, of which they have been informed in 
my letter of the 2d Augst and in which very little alterations have 
since taken place, have induced me to make an alteration of the con- 
certed operations of this Campaign. I am now on my March, with a 
very considerable detachment of the American Army, and the whole 
of the French Troops, for Virginia. 

As I expect to be in Philadelphia in a few days, I shall then 
have the honour to open my motives and intentions to Congress more 
fully, than it may be prudent to do by Letter at this distance. 

I have the honour to be &c 

G. Washington. 

To His Excelly Thomas McKean Esqr. 
President of Congress.^ 

TO LIEUTENANT COLFAX. 

Chatham 28th Augst 1781. 
Sir, 

The inclosed are the Instructions which I meant to deliver 
verbally, with some explanation — but — your absence has prevented 
it! When business or Inclination (especially on a March) calls 
your from your command I should be glad to know it, that I may 
regulate myself, and orders accordingly. 

Your rout, & every thing relative to the inclosed order, is to be 
kept secret till the nature of the movement discloses itself. 

I am Your Obedt. Servt. 

Go. Washington. 

P. S. From Trenton you will contrive to forward Mrs. Thomp- 
son to Newtown, or such other place as she wishes to go to.- 

' Washington Papers, A. VI. pt. 1, 241. 
' Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 455. 



Letters of Washington 389 

TO MAJOR-GENERAL LINCOLN. 
Sir, 

The Troops composing the Detachment under vour Command 
may, till they are united with the force in Virginia, be formed into 
three Brigades— viz— the hght Infantry to be commanded by Colo 
Scammel on the Right. The two York Regiments under Brigadr. 
Sert. Cimton on the left, & Hazcn's Jersey and Rhode Isld. in the 
Centre. 

You will march tomorrow at four Oclock in the morning in 
two columns, for Trenton. The left column is to consist of 'the 
three Brigades above (if Courtlands Regemt. should join in time) 
the Baggage belonging to them, & 6 field pieces (two to each 
Brigade). The right column will consist of the remaining artillery 
Boats, Baggage, & those of every kind, to be escorted by the Corps of 
Sappers & Miners. 

The left column is to march through Westfield & Samptown to 
Raritan landmg (above Brunswick) — 

30th. To Princeton 
3Ith. To Trenton. 
The right column is to proceed thro' Scotch phiins and Quibble 
town to Bound Brooke. 

30th to Princeton 
31th to Trenton. 

The junction of these two columns will be at Kingston (three 
miles short of Princeton) from whence the right column is to pro- 
ceed, and be covered by the left. 

I have not, as yet, made precise arrangements with Qr Mr 
General respecting the number of Waggon's & Teams which are to 
go on from Trenton to the head of Elk, & from thence to Virginia 
and It IS possible, as he is yet behind, & I shall set [out] earlv in 
the Morning for Philadelphia, that I shall not-for which reason 
1 commit the matter to you, giving it as mv opinion, that all the 
covered Waggons-if no more-will certainly be wanted in Virga 

I foresee difficult)' which will arise from the deficiency of Water 
transportation from Trenton to Christiana bridge-and that is, how 
to aportion the Craft equally between the french armv & ours with- 
out occasioning delaj-, as the Vessels will come up as they are engaged 



390 History of Chatham 

and the American Troops ought to be the advance. Some delicacy 
must be used in effecting the latter, without the appearance of sel- 
fishness, & giving umbrage to our allies by taking more care of our- 
selves then them. 

Perhaps one mean of doing it, may be, to let the contents of the 
covered Waggons go on in them, and the Troops least suspected of 
desertion and best able to march by land to the head of Elk. The 
prospect of procuring Craft in time, & other circumstances, must 
govern in this case. 

The Columns should be provided with guides — for want of 
these the artillery yesterday came along a road which was sufficient 
to destroy half the carriages that passed over it. 

Given at Chatham this 28th day of Augt. 1781. 

G. W n.^ 

TO COLONEL VAN COURTLANDT. 

„. Head Quarters Chatham Augt 28th 1781. 

air 

As the Army will march tomorrow Morning before you will 
probably have arrived, you will be pleased when you reach Col. 
Cook's to make yourself acquainted with the best Road leading above 
the Mountains towards Trenton, this you will pursue at least to 
Bound Brook, & from thence will continue the most direct Route to 
Trenton, with your Regiment & all the Stores & other Articles which 
have been committed to your charge. You will keep your destina- 
tion a perfect secret for one or two days at least. 
I am Sir 
Col. Courtland.^ 

TO CAPTAIN DOBBS. 

Chatham 28th Augst 1781. 
Sir 

some particular Circumstances having produced an Alteration 

in my Plan of Operations, there will be no Occasion for the Services 

of the Pilots at present — they may therefore be directed to return 

to their several Homes as soon as they please. 

' Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 443. 
'Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 449. 



Lettf.rs of Washington 391 

You will make a Return to me of the Expense incurred by 
your & the Other Pilots Attendance on this Call & I will endeavor 
to procure you Payment as soon as may be. 

I am &c Q ^ 

To Capt Dobbs, Baskenridge.' 

TO GENERAL FORM AN. 

Chatham 28th Augst, 1781. 7 oClock 
Sir 

I am this Moment favored with yours of this Day. 

Some particular Business calls me for a few Days to Phila. 
whither I shall sett ofif To morrow Morng. I shall be anxious to 
know further Particulars of the Fleet you mention— whatever In- 
telligence you can obtain, you will be pleased to forward to me in 
Phila with all the Expedition in your Power— the more minute your 
Discoveries the Better. 

The Position of Admiral Graves Fleet I shall be glad to know, 
whether he still remains at the Hook, or whether any Movements 
have taken place, & what. 

I am &c Q -^ 

If it is possible to get a Letter to Trenton any Time Tomorrow 
Night, I shall be there, & glad to hear from you before I leave it. 
Genl Forman- 

TO ROCHAMBEAU. 

Chatham 28th August 1781. 
Sir, 

I do not f^nd that the force upon Staten Island is large, or 
thrown over for any other purpose than that of defence— for which 
reason it is submitted to your Excellency's judgment to March your 
Troops in one or two divisions as shall be most easy & convenient 
to them— there moving in two divisions succeeding days, will occa- 
sion no delay, as the Second will be up by the time the first will 
have embarked. 

As I propose to go the lower Road I shall not have the honr. of 

Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 453. 
' Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 447. 



392 History of Chatham 

joining your Excellency till we arrive at Princeton where I will order 
dinner to be ready at three oClock that we may lodge at Trenton 
(12 Miles further). As this will be a journey of 54 Miles from 
Whippany I would suggest to you the expediency of making part of 
it tliis Afternn. Colo. Smith, one of my aids, who is well acquainted 
with the Roads will have the honour of attending You to the ren- 
dezvous at Princeton. 

With great esteem & regard & much personal attachment, I 
have the honr. to be 

Yr Excellencys Most Obt. Servt. 

Go. Washington. 
His Excelly. Count de Rochambeau.' 

TO ABRAHAM SKINNER. 

Chatham 28th August 1781. 
Sir 

Having been authorized by Congress to proceed upon the Ex- 
change proposed by Mr. Loring at your last meeting, you will as 
soon as convenient inform that Gentleman that the prisoners taken 
at the Cedars will be allowed provided a proper allowance is made 
on his part for the Canadian Officers taken at St. Johns in 1775 and 
sent in in 1776. You will be pleased to observe that a dispute hath 
long subsisted respecting the actual Ranks of those Officers, the enemy 
alledging that they were not of so high grades as they were called. 
Congress have now put the matter on the most generous and unex- 
ceptional footing — "that their Ranks shall be adjusted according to 
those spscifyed in their Paroles except the enemy produce sufficient 
proof to the Contrary." I know of no more valid proof than a Cer- 
tificate under the hand of the British Commander in Chief. You 
will remark that the allowance of the Cedar prisoners is made to 
depend upon a proper allowance for the Canadian Officers. 

General Burgoyne as you will see by the Resolve of Congress of 
which the inclosed is a Copy has been offered for the Honble Henry 
Laurens Esq. and the proposal may have been acceded to, but an 
assurance is given in the same resolve that should such Exchange 
have taken place. Credit shall be given for the Officers which may be 

' Washington Papers, D. I, pt. 2, 325. 



Letters of Washington 



393 



received for hiin and payment made as soon as the matter is as- 
certained. 

Should the enemy reject the foregoing offer and chuse to wave 
the Exchange of Genl. Burgoyne imtill the fate of the proposal made 
by Congress shall be known, you will nevertheless proceed upon the 
other matter contained in Mr. Lorings last proposal, but you will 
endeavour as much as possible to include Genl. Burgoyne now. 

As we have not yet received any Returns from the Dy Commy 
of Prisoners to the southward, you are not to agree to the Exchange 
of any Characters taken in that Quarter. When the Returns are 
obtained preference will be given to those who have been longest in 
Captivity, except Congress should be pleased to order to the Contrary 
in any particular instances. 

I am &c 
Abraham Skinner Esqr 

Commy Genl prisoners.^ 

TO THE QUARTERMASTER GENERAL. 

To the Quarter Master General, 

or Deputy Qr M Gl with the Army. 

In all cases on the present March where the Draught Horses 
or Cattle of the Army shall fail, or where an additional number shall 
be absolutely necessary, cS; cannot be procured by hire, or in any other 
way except by Military force; You arc hereby authorized & directed 
to impress such numbers of Horses or Oxen as shall be required to 
perform the public Service, taking care to have it done in such a 
manner, as to secure the property' of the owners as well, & with as 
little damage & inconvenience as the circumstances will admit. 

Given under my hand at Chatham this 2Sth day of Aug 178 1.^' 

COLONEL VAN COURTLANDT TO GENERAL 
WASHINGTON. 

Pompton Augt. 28. 178L 
Dear General 

I have just received your Excellencys Orders of this Date, and 

' Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. I, 45. 
'Washington Papers, B. XIV, pt. 1, 451. 



394 History of Chatham 

shall march on the road you are pleased to direct ; but from the 
Information I have, the best rout is by the way of Troy, to the turn 
of by Bulls Tavern and then the road is Very direct to Chatham 
the Distance 24 or 25 Miles. 

The Regiment is encamped near the yellow House (Curtis's 
Tavern) some of the Boats are Three Miles in the rear, so that it 
will take them Two days before they can arrive and perhaps it will 
be fryday Morning about Nine o Clock before they will all be in. 
If your Excellency should think proper to direct my rout through 
Troy an Express may meet me where the Road turns of at Doddf 
Tavern tomorrow morning at Nine oClock. 

I am with most Esteem Your Excellencys Hume Sert. 

P. CORTLANDT. 

His Excellency General Washington.^ 

The troops took their departure from Chatham secretly 
by night, in order that their movements and the direction of 
their march might not be generally known; the object being 
to conceal their design upon Yorktown as long as possible. 
Dr. Tuttle tells us that on the preceding evening not the 
slightest intimation of their contemplated departure was 
given. The camp appeared as usual: fires were lighted, 
sentries were posted, and the men retired to rest within their 
tents; but before the next morning they had all mysteriously 
disappeared, leaving nothing but the long shed filled with 
ovens; and that no one knew when they had started, nor 
whither they had gone.- It appears, however, from the fol- 
lowing letter of Baron Viomenll, and Washington's reply, 
that the bakery continued in operation for two or three days 
longer, and that a small guard remained to protect it. 



Sir 



Whipany's Camp the 28th of August 1781. 
At 8 oClok in the Night. 

the General Count de Rochambeau Setting out to follow the 

' Washington Papers, 52, 3. 

■ Historical Magazine, Ser. 2, IX, 336. 



Letters of Washington 395 

orders of your Excellency and having assur'd me of your favourable 
disposition to protect our Bakers in Chatam till we could be done 
with them the Intendant told me to day that it is a strong necessitee 
to keep them till the Second of September on purpose for to be able 
of giving bread to the army which would not be able to get any. 
I have the honour to beg your Excellency to give the orders that 
She use Necessary to protect our etablissement in Chatham till the 
day Mentioned. 

1 am with greatest respect from your Excellency Sir Your most 
humble Servant 

ViOMENIL.' 

REPLY. 

Chatham 29th Augst 1781 4 oClock. 
Sir 

I am just now honored with your Favr of last Evening. A 
Detachment of Militia consisting of a Sub[altern] & 25 Men, are 
already Ordered for the Protection of your Bakery — about 400 More 
men will lye near this Place which I think will be full Security so 
long as you mention. 

With &c I am 
Baron Veominil.- 

G. W. 

Washington wrote a similar letter to Rochambeau: 

Chatham Augt. 28th 1781. 
Sir 

I have just been honor'd with yours of this date, and will agree- 
able to your request, order a Detachment of Troops for the purpose 
of covering your Bake house in this place. 

I have ye honor &c. 
Count de Rochambeau.' 

Instead of pursuing an easterly course toward Staten 
Island upon their departure from Chatham, as many of the 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 52, 4. 

" Washington Papers in Lilirary of Congress, D. I, pt. 2, 329. 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, D. I, pt. 2, 327. 



396 History of Chatham 

soldiers confidently expected, the army moved westward 
by way of Main Street and King's Road to the present 
borough limits, and through Madison, along the streets now 
known as Division Avenue,' High Street, and Garfield 
Avenue, toward Green Villager reaching Bound Brook at 
the end of the first day's march.' 

Washington records In his journal the hope that his 
plans might be withheld from the British during the first 
day's march from Chatham/ Thereafter all attempt at con- 
cealment was abandoned; but Clinton was so completely 
deceived by the false despatches which had been permitted to 
fall into his hands, that he believed the movement toward 
the South to be a mere feint to distract his attention from 
New York; and it is said that he was not aware of Washing- 
ton's real design until the Americans had crossed the Dela- 
ware.' It would seem that his spies were so far misled by 
the appearance of a permanent encampment at Chatham as 
to relax their vigilance, or that they are somewhat tardy in 
sending in their reports; for although the march to York- 
town was resumed before daylight on the morning of 
August 29th, we find Clinton writing to Cornwallis on the 
30th— "Mr. Washinton's force still remains in the neigh- 
bourhood of Chatham, and I do not hear that he has yet 
detached to the southward."" 

After their departure from Chatham the formation of 
the American troops was changed. General Lincoln's com- 
mand was formed into three brigades: the light infantry 

' The section of Division Avenue south of King's Road was closed when 
the line of the railroad was altered in 1916. Prior to that time Division 
'\venue crossed King's Road and continued to the eastern extremity of 
High Street. 

■ Tuttle's Bottle Hill and Madison, 84. 

' Mellick's The Story of an Old Farm, 535. 

* Magazine of American History, VH, 125. 

'Lendrum's American Revolution, 374; Schroeder's Life and Times 
of Washington, U, 248. 

" Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy, 11, 145. 



Clinton's Chagrin 397 

under Colonel Scammel on the right, the New York troops 
of Brigadier-General James Clinton on the left, and the 
New Jersey and Rhode Island troops, forming a brigade 
under Colonel Dayton, in the center; two field pieces being 
added to the New Jersey brigade.' The army advanced in 
three columns: the right, consisting of the French troops of 
Rochambcau, followed by the Second New York regiment 
which thus formed the rear guard of the army, marched 
from Whippany by way of Morristown, Somerset Court 
House (now Millstone), and Princeton; the middle column, 
led by Brigadier-General Hazen, proceeded from Chatham 
through Bound Brook to Somerset Court House; and the 
left, being Lincoln's command, upon leaving Springfield 
followed the road through New Brunswick to Trenton, 
where the three columns crossed the Delaware." Dr. 
Thatcher states that the line of march of the American 
troops, after the junction of the left and middle columns, 
was nearly two miles in length.'' 

Sir Henry Clinton's mortification upon being thus out- 
generaled was intensified by the inevitable criticism to which 
he was subjected in England; and in his Narrative of his 
Conduct in America he defends the course he pursued, 
describing the situation of the contending armies at New 
York, and pointing out that no efforts on his part could have 
prevented the success of Washington's strategy. 

Had my correspondence been produced [he continues] it would 
have appeared from it, and the returns accompanying it, that instead 
of seventeen, twenty, nay twenty-four thousand men, which it has 
been reported I had at New York (after the very ample reinforce- 
ments as the Ministry acknowledges which I had sent to the South- 
ward) I had not 12,000 effectives, and of these not above 9,300 fit 
for duty, regulars and provincials. But had I twice that number, 

' Magazine of American History, \', 7; Feltman's Journal, 15. 
■ Magazine of American History, VII, 125. 
° Military Journal, 326. 



398 



History of Chatham 



I do not know that, leaving sufficient garrisons in the islands and 
posts depending (what is admitted by all would take 6,000) I could, 
as has been insinuated, have prevented the junction between Mons. 
Rochambeau and General Washington, which was made in the high- 
lands, at least 50 miles from me; or that I could have made any 
direct move against their army when joined, (consisting then of at 
least 11,000 men, exclusive of militia, assembled on each side the 
Hudson) with any prospect of solid advantage from it. Or if I had 
as many reasons to believe that Mr. Washington would move his 
army into Virginia without a covering French fleet as I had to think 
he would not; I could not have prevented his passing the Hudson 
under cover of his forts at Verplanks and Stoney Points. Nor 
(supposing I had boats properly manned) would it have been ad- 
visable to have landed at Elizabeth town, in the face of works which 
he might easily have occupied (as they were only seven miles from his 
camp at Chatham) without subjecting my army to be beat, en detail. 
Nor could I, when informed of his march towards the Delaware, 
have passed an army in time to have made an impression upon him 
before he crossed that river. 

And, speaking of the encampment at Chatham, he adds 
in a foot-note to the above: "Strong Camp behind Pisaick 
River within a few miles of his middlebrook Camp, which 
S. W. H. [Sir William Howe] with 15,000 thought too re- 
spectable to attack in '77." 




CHAPTER XVII 

Proposed Execution of Captain Asgill in Retaliation for the Murder 
of Captain Huddy — Circumstances of Huddy's Death — Wash- 
ington is appealed to — He demands the Surrender of the Mur- 
derer — His Demand refused — He directs a British Prisoner to 
be selected by Lot tor Retaliation — The Lots are drawn — Asgill 
the Victim. 

IN the summer of 1782 Intense interest was aroused, not 
only in this country but throughout Europe, by the pro- 
posed execution of Captain Charles Asgill of the British 
guards, a prisoner of the Americans, to retaliate for the 
death of Captain Joshua Huddy of the New Jersey State 
troops, who was murdered by the enemy while a captive in 
their hands. Many who heard of Asgill's unhappy situation 
could trace a resemblance between his case and that of 
Major Andre, whose death was still fresh in the minds 
of the people. Asgill, like Andre, was a young gentleman of 
wealth, culture and excellent prospects, belonging to a family 
of distinction. He was younger than Andre, being only 
nmeteen years of age; and his lot was even more hard, as he 
had committed no military offense to merit such untimely 
fate. His case far exceeded that of Andre in the popular 
excitement It occasioned, for his execution was so long de- 
layed that the matter was kept before the public during 
the entire summer; and it promised to parallel the Andre 
affair in its tragic conclusion. But from a military stand- 
point the incident was regarded as of comparatively little 
importance; and as Asgill finally escaped the ignominious 
death which threatened him, although by the merest chance, 
the entire case has been forgotten to a great extent. 

The prisoner was under sentence of death for a period 



400 History of Chatham 

of seven months, while Washington was negotiating with 
the British commanders for the surrender of Huddy's 
slayer, and during the greater part of that time he was 
admitted to his parole and resided at Chatham. Never in 
its history has Chatham figured so prominently in the public 
eye: as the place of Asgill's confinement the village attained 
a distinction on both sides of the Atlantic which it has never 
since enjoyed; and, in view of this fact, no history of Chat- 
ham would be complete which did not review the circum- 
stances of this dramatic occurrence in considerable detail.' 

The Revolutionary War was conducted with great 
severity. History is replete with accounts of barbarities 
committed by the enemy from time to time ; and Washington 
was often obliged to protest to the British generals 
against the many acts of wanton cruelty which were per- 
petrated upon the Americans who had been so unfortunate 
as to fall into their hands. Perhaps in no part of the coun- 
try were the patriots called upon to incur greater dangers 
and to endure more severe hardships than in Monmouth 
County, New Jersey. The inhabitants of that region were 
subjected not only to the misfortunes and privations neces- 
sarily incident to war, but were obliged to contend with a 
large nun^ber of malignant tories, who were guilty of 
atrocities even more shocking than those of the British and 
Hessian soldiery. A sort of civil war, separate and distinct 
from the operations of the two armies, was carried on be- 

'The histoiv of ihe Asgill case, if written in full, would be very volumi- 
nous, a great wealth of material relating to it being contained in Revolu- 
tionary correspondence, newspapers and official records. To publish in the 
present volume the whole of this data would serve no useful purpose, and 
would weary the reader with frequent repetition and prolix discussions of 
unimportant details. In selecting malerial from so prolific a source, it has 
been dithcult to decide which documents to make use of and which to ignore. 
An effort is made to present a concise statement of the Asgill affair, cori- 
taining all the salient facts; and while letters are quoted which bear di- 
rectly upon the subject, and depict or explain the various phases of the 
case, we have avoided, as far as possible, the reprodiiction of those which 
reiterate facts already noticed, or recount collateral incidents not essential to 
a clear understanding of the narrative. 



Fate of Captain Huddy 401 

tween the patriots and tories of Monmouth during the later 
years of the Revolution, in which former friends and neigh- 
bors were pitted against each other; and the struggle was not 
infrequently marked by murders conunitted on either side, 
usually in retaliation for some pre\ious outrage of similiar 
character. 

Among the patriots of Monmouth County one of the 
most energetic was Joshua Huddy of Colt's Neck, a captain 
of artillery in the State troops,' a brave and efficient 
soldier, and an indefatigable worker in the cause of freedom. 
He waged a relentless warfare against the tory guerillas by 
whom t!ie county \^as repeatedly ravaged, and was so suc- 
cessful in circum\'enting and defeating them in their suc- 
cessi\"e raids that he exciteii their bitterest animosity, and 
causcil them to strixe again and again to accomplish his 
death. He \xas finally captured by them in a battle at the 
mouth of I oms Ri\er on March 24, 1782, and conveyed a 
prisoner of war to New York, where he was detained in 
various military prisons, and at length confined in the guard- 
ship Br'uidiiia anchored off Sandy Hook." 

At that time the affairs of the tories were managed and 
to some extent controlled by an organization in New York 
known as the Board of Associated Loyalists, a corporation 
independent of the army, which had been organized upon an 
application of their own by Sir George Germain, Secretary 
of State for the American Department.' This society, or 
some of its members individually, decided that Huddy 
shouKi be hung to expiate the death ot one Philip White, 
who, it \\as claimed, had been tortured and murdered by 
Huddy while he (White) was a prisoner. White was a 
militant tory of Monmouth County, who had been captureii 
while Hudtiy was confineii in New York, and had been shot 

' Stryker's Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolution, 395. 
''Lee's New Jersey as a Colony and as a State, 11, 246. 
'Jones's New York in the Revolution, II, 227. 



402 History of Chatham 

while attempting to escape. The patriots indignantly denied 
that he had been murdered in cold blood, though it is not 
probable that they treated him with tenderness, for one of 
his captors was the son of a man whom he had murdered 
a short time before. ' But whatever the circumstances of 
White's death may have been, it is clear that Huddy could 
have been in no way responsible, since it occurred during the 
latter's imprisonment. Nevertheless Huddy was removed 
from the guardship on April 12 by a party of refugees 
commanded by a renegade Jerseyman named Richard Lip- 
pincott (a brother-in-law of Philip White'), taken to the 
Monmouth shore, and hanged on the heights near Middle- 
town, upon a gallows improvised of fence-rails and pla- 
carded with the following notice: 

We, the Refugees, having long with grief beheld the cruel 
murders of our Brethren, and finding notliing but such measures 
daily carrying into execution, we therefore determine not to suffer 
without taking vengeance for the numerous cruelties; and thus begin 
(and I say may those lose their liberty who do not follow on) and 
I have made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to present to 
your view ; and further determine to hang man for man while there 
is a Refugee existing. 

Up goes Huddy for Philip White.'' 

This murder of an officer in the American service, 
charged with an offense of which he was obviously innocent, 
and without the pretense of a trial, excited the deepest in- 
dignation. Although the crime was by no means un- 
precedented, the circumstances surrounding Huddy's death 
were considered particularly atrocious. He was regarded 
not merely as a captive of the refugees, but as a prisoner of 
the British army in New York; and it was consequently felt 

'Barber's New Jersey Historical Collections, 365; Mellick's The Story 
of an Old Farm, 543. 

' Sabine's Loyalists, H. 19. 

' Neis Jersey Gazette, April 24, 1782. 



Retaliation Demanded 403 

that this murder was directly chargeable to the British 
authorities. 

The patriots of Monmouth County heheved that 
drastic steps should be taken to put a stop to such atrocities. 
Captain David Forman, one of their leaders, prepared an 
accurate statement of the facts, supported by affida\its, and 
drew up a petition, which was approved by a large number 
of respectable and influential citizens, and signed by several 
of them, calling upon General Washington to endeavor by 
all means in his power to bring the guilty parties to justice, 
or, if that should prove impossible, to execute a British 
prisoner in retaliation; in order to deter the enemy from 
the perpetration of further crimes. 

These being a state of indubitable facts, fully proven, [continued 
the petition] we do as of right we may look up to your Excellency 
as the Person in whom the sole power of avenging our wrongs is 
lodged, and who has full and ample Authority to bring a British 
Officer of the same Rank to a similar End— for what man, after 
this instance of the most unjust and cruel murder, will presume 
to say that any Officer or Citizen, whom the chance of \Var may 
put into the hands of the Enemy, will not suffer the same ignomini- 
ous death, under some such groundless & similar pretense. 

Retaliation was urged as the only means of preventing 
the repetition of such crimes, and of affording relief to the 
dangerous wrath of the people ; and a resolution of Congress 
was quoted by which the policy of retaliation was expressly 
authorized in cases of this kind.' 

These papers, together with the placard which set forth 
the excuse for the murder, were intrusted to two line officers. 
Colonel Holmes and Captain Forman, who laid them before 
the American commissioners. General Knox and Goveneur 
Morris, at Elizabeth, who were then negotiating with 

V 10^479" °^ ''"' ^°"''"''"'^' Congress in Library of Congress, 152, 



404 History of Chatham 

General O'Hara and Colonel Abercrombie of the British 
army for an exchange of prisoners; but Knox and Morris 
considered the matter to be beyond their jurisdiction, and 
advised that it be referred directly to Washington, which 
was accordingly done.' 

The commander-in-chief was then at Newburgh, N. Y., 
where he had recently arrived after a short visit to the 
troops at Morristown. He had had occasion to consider 
the expediency of retaliation at previous times during the 
war, but the execution of an innocent man in order to punish 
the crime of another was so abhorent that he had ever 
shrunk from carrying it into effect; and in letters which he 
had written at various times to the generals of his army, he 
strongly deprecated the plan of endeavoring to check the 
barbarities of the enemy by resorting to a measure equally 
barbarous. Now, however, a crisis had arisen. The cir- 
cumstances of the case, the high standing and military rank of 
the murdered man, and the possible continuance of such out- 
rages, required decisive action on his part. He realized, too, 
that the people of Monmouth County were so greatly in- 
censed that if their petition were denied, they would in all 
probability take the matter into their own hands, and resort 
to measures which would bring about a condition even more 
deplorable than that already existing. 

The general did not act, however, without his usual 
caution and forethought. He knew that to have recourse to 
the stern measure of retaliation would expose him to a storm 
of adverse criticism; that although the sacrifice of innocent 
life in such cases had been authorized by Congress, and was 
now demanded by the people, yet he alone would have to 
bear the odium of the act, and that great pressure would be 
exerted to induce him to forego his purpose. He was un- 
willing to adopt a course from which he might be compelled 

' Neiv Jersey Gazette, March 13, 1782; Ford's Writings of Washington, 
IX, 472, n. 



\"lF.VVS OF THE ArMV OBTAINED 405 

to recede, and he determined that he must be assured of 
the approval and support of the army before taking the 
step which the people of Monmouth County demanded. He 
accordingly addressed to his officers a letter which read as 
follows : 

Head Quarters, April 19, 1782. 
To the General and Field Officers of the Army: 

The Commander-in-Chief submits the papers accompanying this, 
containing the case of Capt Joshua Huddy, lately hanged within 
the County of Monmouth in N Jersey State by a party of the 
Enemy, to the Consideration of tJie Genl Officers and Command's 
Officers of Brigades and Regiments, And thereupon requests from 
them, separately and in Writing, a direct and laconic Reply to the 
following Queries, Viz : 

1st Upon the State of Facts in the above Case, is Retaliation 
justifiable and expedient? 

2d If justifiable. Ought it to take place immediately? Or 
should a previous Representation he made to Sir Hy Clinton, and 
Satisfaction be demanded from him? 

3d In case of Representation and Demand, who should be the 
person or persons to be required? 

4th In case of Refusal, and Retaliation becoming necessaiy, of 
what Description shall the officer be, on whom it is to take place; 
and how shall he be designated for the purpose?' 

The officers assembled at the headquarters of General 
Heath, who propounded the questions to them. In order to 
secure the unbiased opinion of each, entirely uninfluenced by 
the views of his comrades, they were forbidden to converse 
on the subject. Each was required to write his answers on 
a piece of paper, fold and seal it, and address it to the com- 
mander-in-chief. Colonel Humphreys and Colonel Trumbull 
of the general's official family attended the meeting, and 
were careful to see that his tlirections were strictly obeyed. - 

'Washington P.ipers in Library of Congress, BXV, pt. I, 187. 
'Heath's Memoirs, 350. 



4o6 History of Chatham 

Twenty-five officers replied to the questions. Twenty- 
two agreed that satisfaction should first be demanded of Sir 
Henry Clinton, commanding the British forces at New 
York; while the other three held that the laws of war and 
the enormity of the offense justified the immediate execution 
of a British prisoner in retaliation, without previous notice. 
They were unanimously of opinion that retaliation was 
justifiable and expedient; that the leader of the party who 
murdered Huddy was the person who ought to suffer; that in 
case he could not be obtained, a British prisoner equal in 
rank to Captain Huddy should be sacrificed; and that such 
victim should be selected by lot from among the uncon- 
ditional prisoners: that is, the prisoners who had surrendered 
at discretion, and not those who were protected by the terms 
of a capitulation or convention.' 

The views of the army having been thus obtained, 
Washington lost no time in writing to Clinton, demanding 
the surrender of Lippincott. 

Head Quarters, April 21st. 1782. 
Sir, 

The inclosed Representation from the inhabitants of the County 
of Monmouth, with testimonials to the facts (which can be corob- 
orated by other unquestionable Evidence,) will bring before your 
Excellency the most wanton, unprecedented, and inhuman murder 
that ever disgraced the Arms of a civilized people. 

I shall not, because 1 conceive it to be altogether unnecessary, 
trouble your Excely with any Animadversions upon this trans- 
action. Candor obliges me to be explicit. To save the innocent, I 
demand the guilty. Capt Lippincot, therefore, or the officer who 
commanded at the Execution of Capt. Huddy, must be given up; 
or if that officer was of inferior Rank to him, so many of the per- 
petrators as will, according to the tariff of Exchange, be an Equiva- 
lent. 

To do this, will mark the Justice of your Excelly's Character. 

'Heath's Memoirs, 350; Ford's Writings of Washington, IX, 472, n. 



Clinton's Evasion 407 

In Failure of it, I shall hold myself justifiable in the Eyes of God 
and Man, for the Measure to which I shall resort. 

I beg your Exy to be persuaded, that it cannot be more disagree- 
able to you to be addressed in this Language, than it is to me to offer 
it; but the subject requires frankness and decision. 

1 have to request your speedy determination, as my Resolution 
is suspended but for your Answer. 

I have the honor to be.' 

CLINTON'S REPLY 

New York April 25th 1782. 

Sir.— 

Your letter of the 21st. Instant with the enclosed Testimonials 
of Captain Huddy's Execution, was delivered to me Yesterday; and 
tho I am extremely concerned for the Cause, I cannot conceal my 
surprise and Displeasure at the very improper Language You have 
made Use of, which You could not but be sensible was totally 
unnecessary. 

The Mildness of the British Government does not admit Acts 
of Cruelty or persecuting Violence, and as they are notoriously con- 
trary to the Tenor of my own Conduct and Disposition (having 
never yet stained my Hands with innocent Blood,) I must claim 
the Justice of having it believed that if any such have been committed 
by any Person under my Command, they could not have been war- 
ranted by my Authority, nor can they ever have the Sanction of my 
Approbation. My personal Feelings, therefore, required no such In- 
citement to urge me to take every proper Notice of the barbarous 
Outrage against Humanity which You have represented to me the 
Moment it came to my knowledge, and accordingly, when I heard 
of Captain Huddy's Death, (which was only four Days before I 
received Your Letter,) I instantly ordered a strict enquiry to be 
made into all its Circumstances, and shall bring the Perpetrators of 
it to an immediate Trial. 

To sacrifice Innocence under the Notion of preventing Guilt, in 
place of repressing, would be adopting Barbarity and raising it to 
the greatest Height, AVhereas, if the Violators of the Laws of War 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, E, 469. 



4o8 History of Chatham 

were punished by the Generals under whose Power they act, the Hor- 
rors which those Laws were formed to prevent will he avoided, and 
every Degree of Humanity War is capable of maintained. 

Could Violations of Humanity be justified by Example, many 
from the parts where your Po\\ er prevails, that exceed and probably 
gave Rise to this in Question, could be produced. 

In hope that the Mode I mean to pursue will be adopted by 
You, and prevent all future Enormities, I remain Sir, 

Your Excellency's &c. &c. 

H. Clinton.' 

The position of Sir Henry Clinton was unquestionably 
delicate and embarrassing. His natural impulse was to dis- 
claim all responsibility for Huddy's death, since the As- 
sociated Loyalists had acted without his knowledge and 
possibly contrary to his instructions; yet he hesitated to let 
it appear that he was unable to maintain discipline in the 
city of his headquarters, and he shrank from antagonizing 
the tories by yielding to Washington's demand. He and his 
successor. Sir Guy Carleton, who, a few days later, followed 
him in command of the British forces in America, en- 
deavored to temporize. They both expressed the deepest 
indignation at Huddy's murder, insisted that the crime had 
been committed without the knowledge and sanction of the 
British authorities, and assured the American commander 
that the perpetrators should be brought to an immediate 
trial in which full justice would be done; at the same time 
attempting to distract Washington's attention by pointing 
out similar crimes said to have been committed by the Amer- 
icans, and to persuade him to abandon his plan of retalia- 
tion. But they steadfastly refused to surrender Lippincott. 

Clinton laid the matter before the Associated Loyalists, 
who were filled with consternation at the serious con- 
sequences of the crime, and sought to exculpate themselves 
by throwing all blame upon Lippincott. A court-martial was 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 56, 78. 



Findings of the Court-Martial 409 

ordered for the trial of the latter, in the course of which it 
appeared that WiUiam FrankHn, president of the Associated 
Loyalists, had given him verbal orders for Huddy's execu- 
tion, and that such orders were known and approved of by 
several members of the Board- without being opposed by 
any. The court decided that, although Lippincott had acted 
without proper authority, he had not been actuated by malice 
or ill will, but believed it to be his duty to implicitly obey the 
commands of the Board, and did not doubt their authority 
to issue such orders. He was accordingly acquitted. 

Sir Guy Carleton, who had now succeeded Clinton in 
command at New York, sent a report of the trial to General 
Washington, and, realizing that the Americans would not 
be satisfied with the result of the proceeding, he promised, in 
an accompanying letter, to prosecute a further inquiry. Soon 
afterwards he dissolved the Board of Associated Loyalists, 
in order to avoid further difficulties, and possibly with the 
view of appeasing the anger of the patriots.' 

While these proceedings were taking place in New 
York, Washington had not been idle. Foreseeing the reluct- 
ance of the British commanders to surrender the murderer, 
and having but little hope that justice would be done as a 
result of their inquiry, he did not await the decision of the 
court-martial, but wrote on the 2nd of i\Iay to Brigadier- 
General Moses Hazen, commanding the prison camps at 
York and Lancaster, Penn., where many of the British 
troops captured at Yorktown were confined, directing him to 
select by lot a victim for retaliation. His letter follows : 

Head Qrs, 2d Mav, 1782. 
Sir, 

The Enemy, persisting in that barbarous line of conduct, they 
have pursued during the course of this war, have lately most inhu- 
manly Executed Capt Joshua Huddy, of the Jersy State troops, taken 

Gordon's Rise of American Independence, IV, 287, 291. 



4IO History of Chatham 

Prisoner by them at the Port on Toms River; and in consequence, 
I have written to the British Ambassador-in-Chief, that, unless the 
Perpetrators of that horrid deed were delivered up, I should be 
under the disagreeable necessity of Retaliating, as the only means left 
to put a stop to such inhuman proceedings. 

You will, therefore, immediately on recet of this, designate by 
lot for the above purpose, a British Captain, who is an unconditional 
Prisoner, if such a one is in our possession ; if not, a Lieutenant under 
the same circumstances, from among the Prisoners at any of the 
Posts, either in Pennsylvania or Maryland. 

So soon as you have fixed on the Person, you will lead him under 
a safe guard to Philadelphia, where the Minister of War will order 
a proper Guard to receive and conduct him to the place of his 
Destination. 

For your information respecting the Officers, who are Prisoners 
in our possession, I have ordered the Commissioner of Prisoners to 
furnish you with a List of them ; it will be forwarded with this. 

I need not mention to you, that ever>' possible tenderness, that is 
consistent with the security of him, should be shown to the person 
whose unfortunate lot it may be to suffer.^ 

At the same time he addressed a letter to General 
Benjamin Lincoln, Secretary of War, directing that the 
prisoner should be sent to the cantonments of the Jersey line, 
which was the place assigned for execution. As Captain 
Huddy had been an officer of the New Jersey troops, it was 
thought fitting that his murder should be avenged by the 
soldiers of his own State. The general wrote: 

Head Quarters, Newburgh May 4th. 1782. 
Dear Sir, 

By the letter to Brigdr General Hazen, which I have enclosed 
to you under a flying seal, for your inspection, you will observe the 
distressing alternative to which we are at last reduced ; I must 
request you will give that Letter a safe and speedy conveyance. • 

As soon as the British Officer, whose unfortunate lot it is to be 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, BXV. pt. 1, 237. 



Washington's Instructions 411 

designated as the object of Retaliation, shall arrive in Philadelphia, 
it will be necessary to have a sufficient Escort, under the command of 
a very discreet and vigilant officer, in readiness to receive and con- 
duct him to the Cantonment of the Troops of New Jersey; I pray 
you will be pleased to give the Orders proper for the occasion, and 
direct the officer Commanding the Party to apply to the Commandant 
of the Jersey Line, who will have final instructions respecting the 
matter. 

Keenly wounded as my feelings will be, at the destiny of the 
unhappy Victim, no gleam of hope can arise to him but from the 
conduct of the Enemy themselves. This he may be permitted to 
communicate to the British Commander-in-Chief; in whose power 
alone it rests to avert the impending vengeance from the innocent by 
executing it on the guilty— at the same time it may be announced, 
that I will receive no application nor answer any Letter on the sub- 
ject, which does not inform me that ample satisfaction is made for 
the death of Capt. Huddy on the perpetrators of that horrid deed.' 

By some error General Lincoln informed the com- 
mander-in-chief that there was no unconditional prisoner 
a\ ailable, despite the fact that there were two British officers 
in the hands of the Americans who answered that descrip- 
tion;- and Washington, feeling that the matter had 
progressed so far that it could not be dropped, wrote a 
second letter to Hazen directing him to make the selection 
from among the prisoners who were under capitulation. 

Head Quarters, 18th May, 1782. 
Sir, 

It was my Wish to have taken for the purpose of retaliation an 
officer who was an unconditional prisoner of War. I am just in- 
formed by the Secy at War, that no one of that description is 
in our power. I am therefore under the disagreeable necessity to 
Direct, that 50U immediately select, in the manner before prescribed, 
from among all the British Captains who are prisoners either under 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, A. VI, pt. 2, 113. 
'Ford's Writings of Washington, X, 5, n., 33. 



412 History of Chatham 

Capitulation or Convention, One who is to be sent in as soon as 
possible, under the Regulations and Restrictions contained in my 
former Instructions to you. 
I am, Sir, &c. &c. 

Go. Washington.^ 

The senior captain among the British prisoners at York 
and Lancaster was Samuel Graham of the Seventy-sixth regi- 
ment of foot, who in after years became the lieutenant- 
governor of Stirling castle in Scotland. Graham wrote a 
narrative of his experiences in the American Revolution, 
and to him we are indebted for a full account of the man- 
ner in which the victim was chosen for the purpose of 
retaliation." 

In his description of their life in the prison camps, 
Graham alludes to a feeling of uneasiness which arose 
among the captives upon reading in the newspapers which 
occasionally reached them of atrocities committed by the 
tories, and the resultant appeals to Washington for retalia- 
tion; their disquietude increasing when the correspondence 
between Washington and Clinton in the Huddy case was pub- 
lished, and it became evident that the general was disposed 
to accede to these demands. For while the prisoners at 
York and Lancaster were protected by the capitulation of 
Yorktown, which in express terms provided against reprisals, 
and they therefore apprehended no injury to themselves, 
they feared that other captives, who had surrendered un- 
conditionally, might be called upon to suffer. 

On the 24th of May, while Graham was on parole at 
York where his regiment was imprisoned, he received a 
somewhat unexpected visit from his friend Major James 
Gordon of the Eightieth regiment, the ranking officer among 
the British captives at that place, who said that he was the 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, BXV. pt. 1, 303. 
' Graham's Memoirs; United Service Journal, XVI, pt. Ill; Chambers' 
Edinburgh Journal, January, 1835. 







Qrouirif iam wiSusi^rm 
•^Vwi-wilirl^irlliqiiljai., 
Jt'tfiijit lifir is lioiiic 

Jyant ill &n limtniF. if !lpi( 
<. «> cAa Mil 

^>rtprin:,<c»lprir !>• 

miji prais »Hr: 



crott lie.) N>[a»>vi!ii {}»«, 

t>>vK hciv » Lwii ; 
•\ji(i stNi.I W son siuvrwM.*! 

Loni; m 0)1* rcfllijv. H' i>w.l 
^ ;» '^ liUv. l»oj»..u,.^; 




The Captive Officers Assembled 413 

bearer of a message from General Hazen to the officer in 
command at York to send all the British captains on parole 
there to Lancaster. They were each directed to take a 
servant and spare necessaries, and to meet at Gordon's 
quarters in Lancaster; but the major did not tell Graham 
for what reason they were to be thus assembled, explaining 
that he had pledged his word not to divulge certain facts 
which had come to his knowledge. 

In accordance with these instructions, thirteen British 
officers who were confined at York and Lancaster gathered 
the next afternoon at Major Gordon's quarters. They were 
Captains Alexander Arbuthnot and William Hawthorn of 
the Eightieth foot, David Barclay and Samuel Graham of 
the Seventy-sixth, James Ingram of the Thirty-third, Lan- 
ford Mills of the Se\'enteenth, Thomas Saumarez of the 
Twenty-third (Royal Welsh P'usileers), and Bulstrode 
Whitlock ot the Twenty-sixth, attached to the Queen's 
Rangers; and Lieutenants (Acting Captains) Charles 
Asgill, George Eld, H. Fulke Greville, George Ludlow and 
John Perryn, all of the First Foot Guards, or Grenadier 
Guards as they are now called. Major Gordon, whom they 
found pacing the room in uncontrollable agitation, imme- 
diately informed them for what purpose they had been 
called together. "You have all seen the correspondence 
which has for some time been carried on between General 
Washington and the Conunander-in-chief at New York," 
he continued, "and you therefore know that Washington is 
determined to revenge upon some Innocent man the guilt of 
a set of lawless banditti. Gentlemen, you will scarcely be- 
lieve that in the face of the capitulation, and in defiance of 
the strong remonstrances which I have felt it my duty to 
make, both to the American and French authorities, one of 
you is doomed to suffer. I have told Washington that he 
will be answerable for this foul deed to all posterity; but I 
might as well reason with the air I I wish to God they 



414 History of Chatham 

would take me in your place ; for I am an old worn-out trunk 
of a tree, and have neither wife nor mother to weep for 
me. But even to that they will not consent; so all that I can 
undertake to do is, to accompany the unfortunate individual, 
whoever he may be, to the place of his martyrdom, and to 
give him every consolation and support while life remains, 
and obey his wishes after it is taken away." 

He also assured them that he would spare no exertion 
to save the life, of the victim, and read to them letters con- 
taining protests, or appeals for Intervention, which he had 
written to General Washington, to the President of Con- 
gress, to the Count de Rochambeau, to the Chevalier de la 
Luzerne, French Minister at Philadelphia, and to Sir Guy 
Carleton. Graham adds that the major, though a man of 
great self-control, could not restrain his tears upon con- 
templating the cruel fate which was about to befall one of 
their number, and that there was not one of the younger 
officers who did not feel a thousand times more for him 
than for themselves. Nevertheless, they kept up their 
spirits, chiefly on the major's account, and spent a tranquil 
and even lively evening at his table. 

On the following morning (May 26th) at nine o'clock 
the captains presented themselves at General Hazen's head- 
quarters in the Black Bear tavern at Lancaster, there to 
draw lots for life or death; and, despite their anxiety, they 
repaired to the appointed place talking together as calmly 
and cheerfully as if they were going to a ball. In the yard 
of the inn they found a party of twenty dragoons already 
mounted, who, it was understood, had been detailed to act 
as the victim's escort upon his journey; and a large num- 
ber of townspeople had gathered in front of the building 
to learn the result of the lottery. In one of the rooms of 
the tavern, to which the prisoners were directed, they were 
met by General Hazen, who was attended by Captain 
White, his aide-de-camp, and by Mr. Witz, the commissary 



Gordon's Pkotksts 415 

of prisoners, all of whom appeared to be considerably agi- 
tated. Hazen evidently found the ordeal a trying one, and 
his voice faltered as he addressed the prisoners, informing 
them for what purpose they had assembled, and reading 
aloud the two letters of instructions which he had received 
from Washington. 

He earnestly requested the captains to decide among 
themselves who the victim was to be, in order to save him the 
painful necessity of drawing the lots; but this they of course 
refused to do. Major Gordon, who acted as spokesman 
for the group, entered a vigorous protest against this breach 
of the treaty of Yorktown, which contained a provision 
against reprisals. Finding his protest of no avail, he raised 
the point that the captains there present were only a small 
proportion of the total number who had surrendered at 
Yorktown, and that if such a deed were to be done, it would 
be more fair and just if all of them were assembled. He 
assured Hazen that none of the absent ones would shrink 
from the ordeal, but that, if sufficient time were allowed, 
they would be willing to come forward even from England 
to stake their lives with their comrades; and he asked that 
the matter be postponed at least long enough to summon a 
captain who had been left in Virginia when the captured 
army was removed to the prison camps. But the brigadier 
replied that his instructions particularly mentioned such cap- 
tains as were in Pennsylvania and Maryland; and as he was 
directed to send the victim forward immediately, he could 
not consent to any delay. 

"When all is over," said he, "and the lot has been 
declared on whom the blow must fall, then you may rely upon 
it that every indulgence shall be shown which you could 
expect, or my own feelings dictate." Then, turning to his 
aide and the commissary of prisoners, he requested them to 
withdraw to an adjoining room and prepare the lots. 

Captain Graham affirms that It would be quite im- 



41 6 History of Chatham 

possible to describe his sensations, which were doubtless 
experienced in like degree by the others, during the brief 
pause which ensued. The prisoners for the most part re- 
mained silent, though all kept up a good countenance, 
apparently without effort. Their courage was exemplified 
by the conduct of Captain David Barclay, who, when in- 
formed by Hazen that Washington had given orders per- 
mitting him to go to New York, and that, in consequence, his 
name would not be included in the lottery, insisted that his 
name should be added, and that he might share the danger 
which menaced his comrades.' 

Perhaps ten minutes had elapsed when the aide and the 
commissary re-entered the room, each carrying a hat in his 
hand. They were followed by the officer commanding the 
dragoons who were drawn up outside the building, and by 
a drummer boy who had been called in to draw the lots. In 
the hat held by the aide they had placed thirteen slips of 
paper of equal size and shape, each of which bore the name 
of one of the British captains; the hat carried by the com- 
missary contained thirteen similar slips, twelve of which 
were blank and one marked "unfortunate." The drummer 
thrust his hand into the first hat, drew out a slip of paper, 
and read aloud the name written upon it; then from the 
other hat he drew a slip which proved to be blank, thus 
leaving in safety the officer whose name had just been read. 
Ten times was this process repeated; but at the eleventh 
drawing the fatal slip "unfortunate" came forth, following 
the name of Charles Asgill, to whom General Hazen 
• pointed while he said to the officer of dragoons, "That 
gentleman, sir, is your prisoner."' 

' Graham's Memoirs, Appendix, Note A, B. 

'Graham's Memoirs; United Service Journal, 1834, XVI, pt. 3. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

The Asgill Case continued— Asgill is conveyed to Philadelphia and 
trom thence to Chatham— Attempt to secure an Unconditional 
Prisoner as a Victim— Asgill's Execution delayed— He is ad- 
mitted to his Parole and resides at Dayton's Headquarters in 
Chatham— Correspondence relating to his Case. 

CHARLES ASGILL, the British officer who was selected 
to be the victim of retaliation, as described in the last 
chapter, was a member of a distinguished family, and heir 
to an extensive fortune and estate. He was the only 
son of Sir Charles Asgill, baronet, a successful banker of 
London, who had been Lord Mayor of that city in 1757. 
The son was born in 1763, and was therefore about nineteen 
years of age at the time of which we write. He entered the 
army in 1778, joining the First Foot Guards with the rank 
of ensign. In 1781 he became a lieutenant and acting 
captam m the same regiment, and was ordered to America 
in the spring of that year.' Being possessed of an amiable 
disposition and many engaging qualities, he was very popular 
with his comrades in arms, who were filled with sorrow when 
It was determined by the lottery that his life was to be 
forfeited. 

'The excitement of the scene was now over," writes Captain 
C^raham after describing the drawing of lots, "and we gazed upon 
poor Asgill with a bitterness and intensity of feeling such as defied 
control.. .... To know that his days, nay his hours, were num- 

bered-that was a demand upon the fortitude of those who loved 
him, such as the)- could not meet. We all lifted up our voices and 
wept, and while a warm pressure of the hand was exchanged with 

Guard'''l'l'"l'''"'''"^^-^ "' ''^'"°^' Biography; Hamilton's Grenadier 



41 8 History of Chatham 

each in his turn, the object of so much commiseration found it no 
easy matter himself to restrain his tears. Nor, to do them justice, 
were the Americans either within or without the house, indifferent 
spectators to the drama The crowd, too — and a dense mul- 
titude was assembled around the house — evinced their sympathy by 
such exclamations of pity as crowds are wont to of^er. Their obser- 
vation was: 'What odd people these Britishers are! they went in 
all cheerful and chatting before they knew which one of them was 
to suffer for our good friend Captain Huddy; but now when they 
know, they all come out in tears, except the young man himself who 
has been selected.' And so, in fact it was. There was not a dry 
eye among us, except that of Asgill himself, as we proceeded from 
the Black Bear to Major Gordon's quarters."' 

Hazen's report to Washington was contained in a letter 
of May 27th, which read as follows: 

Sir, 

On the Evening of the 25th. Instant I received your Excel- 
lency's Letters of the 4th. and 18th. Current; as I had to collect the 
British Captains Prisoners of War, at this Place and York-Town, 
it was 10 o'clock this Morning before I could assemble those Gen- 
tlemen together at the drawing of Lots, which was done in the 
presence of Major Gordon and all the British Captains within the 
Limits prescribed; — the unfortunate Lot has fallen on the Honour- 
able Capt. Charles Asgill, of the Guards; a young Gentleman of sev- 
enteen Years of Age; a most amiable Character; the only Son of Sir 
Charles Asgill, Baronet; Heir to an extensive Fortune; an honour- 
able Title; and of course he has great Interest in the British Court 
and Armies. The British Officers are highly enraged at the Con- 
duct of Sir Henry Clinton ; they have solicited my leave to send an 
Officer to New-York on this Occasion, or that I would intercede 
with the Minister of War to grant it. Being fully convinced that 
no Inconvenience could possibly arise to our Cause from this Indul- 
gence, but on the contrary, good Policy and Humanity dictates the 
Measure. I was pleased at the Application, and with Cheerfulness 

' United Service Journal, 1834, XVI, 318; Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, 
January, 1835. 




CAPTAIN t.HAKLi:S ASt.ILL 
From Gniliaui's Mt-uiDiis. 



Hazen's Report 419 

have recommended to the Minister of War to grant the Honourable 
Capt. Ludlow, Son of the Earl of Ludlow, leave to carry the Repre- 
sentations of those unfortunate Officers who openly declare to have 
been deserted by their General, and given up to suffer for the Sins 
of the Guilty. I must here beg to remark, that since my Command 
at this Place, as far as I have been able to discover, those unfortunate 
Officers have conducted [themselves] with great Propriety, and as I 
sensibly feel for their disagreeable Situation, I hold it as a Part of 
my Duty to endeavour to alleviate their Distresses by such Indul- 
gences as may not be prejudicial to our Service. 



As your Excellency was pleased to direct that every possible 
Tenderness should be shewn to the unfortunate Officer whose Lot 
it should be to suffer on this Occasion, I have in Consequence of a 
Joint Application by Capt. AsgiU and Major Gordon, permitted the 
latter to accompany the former to Philadelphia, where he will of 
course receive and follow the Orders of the Minister of War. 

Since I wrote the above Majr. Gordon has furnished me with 
an Original Letter of which the enclosed is a Copy, by which you 
will see we have a Subaltern Officer and unconditional Prisoner of 
War at Winchester Barracks. I have also just received Information 
that Lieut. Turner, of the 3rd. Brigade of Genl. Skinner's New 
Jersey Volunteers is in York Gaol — but as those Informations did not 
come to Hand before the Lots were drawn, and my Letters wrote to 
your Excellency and the Minister of War on the Subject, and as I 
judge no Inconveniency can possibly arise to us by sending on Capt. 
Asgill, to Philadelphia, which will naturally tend to keep up the Hue 
and Cry, and of course foment the present dissentions amongst our 
Enemies, I have sent him under Guard as directed. Those Officers 
above-mentioned are not only of the Description which your Excel- 
lency wishes, and at first ordered, but in another Point of View are 
proper Subjects for Example, being Traitors to America, and having 
taken refuge with the Enemy, and by us in Arms. It having fallen to 
my Lot to superintend this melancholy disagreeable Duty, I must 
confess I have been most sensible affected with it, and do most sin- 
cerely wish that the Information here given may operate in favour of 
Youth, Innocence, and Honour. 



420 History of Chatham 

I have the Honour to be, your Excellency's most obedt. and 
most devoted humble Servant, 

Moses Hazen. 
His Excellency Genl. Washington/ 

Now that the identity of the victim had been deter- 
mined, Major Gordon tilled some blank spaces which he had 
left in the letters previously written to the American and 
French authorities, and obtained General Hazen's permis- 
sion to forward them without delay. His letter to Sir Guy 
Carleton, which was sent by the hand of Ludlow, read as 
follows : 

Lancaster 27th May 1782 
Sir, 

I am sorry to inform Your Excellency, in Consequence of an 
Order from General Washington, directed to Brigr. Genl. Hazen, 
commanding Officer at this Post, that Captain Asgill of the Brigade 
of Guards, has this day been made close Prisoner, and is to be escorted 
under a Guard tomorrow to Philadelphia, where it is said he is to 
sufler an ignominious Death in the Room of Captn. Huddy, an 
American Officer, who was murdered some time ago, by a lawless 
Banditti calling themselves Refugees. 

I have done everything in my Power to prevent it, which I hope 
will meet with Your Excellency's Approbation. 

The Honble. Captn. Ludlow of the Guards will have the Honor 
of delivering this to Your Excellency, and will inform you of every 
Application I have made. Lots were drawn for the Captains of 
Lord Cornwallis's Army present here, and when the unfortunate 
Chance fell to Captn. Asgill, he received it with that firm Coolness 
that would have reflected Honor upon any Officer in His Majesty's 
Service. 

The delicate Manner in which General Hazen communicated 
his Orders to the British Officers, shews him to be a Man of real 
Feelings, and the mild Treatment that the Prisoners have met with 
since we came to this Place, deserves the warmest Acknowledgments 
of every British Officer. 1 shall expect with Impatience Your Excel- 
' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 114, 2. 



Appeal to the French Minister 421 

lency's Commands, and 1 have the Honor to be, Sir, x\ ith the greatest 
Respect, 

Your Excellency's &c. 

James Gordon 
Major 80th Regt. & Field Officer 
with British Prisoners. 
His Excellency 

Sir Guy Carleton K. B.' 

Following is his appeal to the French Minister: 

Lancaster May 27th 1782 
Sir, 

I beg leave to acquaint Your Excellency, that in Consequence of 
an Order from His Excellency General Washington dated the 18th 
of May, directed to Brigadier General Hazen commanding at this 
Post, that Captain Charles Asgill of His Majesty's Guards has been 
made close Prisoner, and is to be sent to Philadelphia, where it is 
said he is to suffer an ignominious Death in the Room of Captain 
Huddy, an American Officer, who was murdered by a Party of 
Refugees. As this is in direct Violation of the Articles of Capitula- 
tion settled and agreed upon between His Excellency George Wash- 
mgton Esqr. Commander in Chief of the combined Forces of Amer- 
ica and France, His Excellency Count de Rochambeau, Lieutenant 
General of the Armies of the King of France, Great Cross of the 
Royal and Military Orders of St. Louis, commanding the Troops of 
his most Christian Majesty in America, and His Excellency the 
Count de Grass, Lieutenant General of the Naval Army of France, 
commanding in the Chesapeak, on the one Part; And The Right 
Honorable Lieutt. General Earl Cornwallis, commanding His Brit- 
tanic Majesty's Forces in the Garrisons of York and Gloucester, and 
'1 homas Sjmonds Esqr. commanding His Brittannic Majesty's Naval 
Forces in York River, Virginia, on the other Part; I must therefore 
beg of Your Excellency, as Minister Plenipotentiary to His Most 
Christian Majesty Lewis the 16th. King of France, who guarantees 
that Capitulation to Britain, that You will be pleased to order him 
'British Public Record Office; copy in Library of Congress. 



422 History of Chatham 

to be released from his Confinement on his giving the same Parole 
with the rest of the Officers taken with Lord Cornwallis. If the 
Law of Nations was to allow of so inhuman and barbarous a Method 
of carrying on the War, as that of Retaliation, it never could extend 
to Officers taken by Capitulation, nor would it ever be permitted by 
the Subjects of our respective Sovereigns. 

The fourteenth Article of Capitulation expressly says, No Ar- 
ticles to be infringed on Pretext of Reprisals &ca. 

The Honble. Captain Ludlow of His Majesty's Guards will 
have the Honor of delivering this to Your Excellency, and receive 
Your Answer. 

I have the Honor to be, &ca. &ca. 

James Gordon 
Major 80th Regt. and Field 
Officer with British Prisoners 
His Excellency 

Monsr. de'Luzerne. 
&ca. &ca.' 

His letter to General Washington was couched In these 
terms: 

Lancaster 27th. May 1782. 

Sir 

It is with astonishment I read a Letter from your Excellency, 
dated 18th. May, directed to Brigadier General Hazen, Command- 
ing at this Post, ordering him, to send a British Captain, taken at 
York-town, by Capitulation, with My Lord Cornwallis, Prisoner to 
Philadelphia, where 'tis said he is to suffer an ignominious Death, 
in the room of Capt. Huddy an American Officer, who was murder'd 
by a Lawless Banditti, calling themselves Refugees. 

As this is, in Direct Violation of the Articles of Capitulation of 
the Garrison's of York and Gloucester, which Your Excellency 
signs first, as Commander in Chief of the Combin'd Forces of Amer- 
ica and France, the 14th. Article of which, expressly says "That 
no Articles of the Capitulation are to be infring'd on Pretext of Re- 
prisals, and if there be any doubtful Expressions in it, they are to 
be interpreted, according to the common meaning and acceptation of 

'British Public Record Office; copy in Library of Congress. 



Letters of Gordon and Asgill 423 

the Words," I, therefore, in the Name of my Royal Master George 

the Third, King of Great Britain, Demand of Your Excellency, 

that you will order Captain Asgill of the Brigade of Guards, to be 

discharged from his Confinement, and admitted to the same Parole, 

as the other Officers of my Lord Cornwallis' Army. 

I have the Honor to be Your Excellency's Most Obedt & most 

Humle Servt. t /-> 

James Gordon 

Major 80 Regt. & Field Officer 

with the British Prisors 

His Excellency General Washington, 

Commander in Chief of the Combin'd Forces 

of America & France.' 

Gordon seems to have written more than once to Wash- 
ington upon the subject;'"' but the general, in accordance with 
the determination he had expressed in his second letter to 
Hazen, declined to reply. 

ASGILL TO CARLETON. 

„. Lancaster 27th May 1782 

Sir, 

General Washington having ordered Lots to be drawn for the 
Captains of Lord Cornwallis's Capitulated Army that One might 
be secured as amenable for Captain Huddy's Death, who was hanged 
by some Refugees the unfortunate Chance fell to me. Conscious 
of my own Innocence, and firmly relying that I shall receive every 
Support Si Assistance my unnecessary Circumstances may need from 
your well known Justice and Humanity I shall patiently wait Your 
Excellency's Resolves. 

I have the Honor to be your Excellency's most obedient humble 
Servt. 



His Excellency 
Sir Guy Carleton 
&ca. &ca.'' 



Charles Asgill 
Lieut. 1st Rcgt. Foot Guards 



' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 114, 4. 
' Ford's Writings of Washington, XI, 60. 

'American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution, Vol. 26, No. 206; copy 
in Library of Congress. 



424 History of Chatham 

ASGILL TO WASHINGTON. 

Philadelphia May 30th 1782 
Sir ■ . 

As I conceive myself under the Protection of a Treaty in which 
the Honor & Faith of Nations are the Pledges, I have nothing to 
apprehend but from Hasty resolves. I must therefore trouble your 
Excellency with those reasons that induce me to wish any final deter- 
mination may be deferred untill Sr Guy Carleton can be thoroughly 
informed of the circumstances of my. Confinement. From the Orders 
your E.xcellency sent to Genl. Hazen it appears that a British officer 
being an unconditional Prisoner with the Rank of Captain or Lieu- 
tenant, was to be delivered up, that he might be retaliated with for 
the Death of Captain Huddy, that if no Officer under that Descrip- 
tion could be found, this Order then extended to the Captains (Brit- 
ish) of Ld Cornwallis's Capitulated Army— in consequence Lots 
were drawn for those Captains who were present of that Army & 
the decision fell upon me. Perfectly innocent of Captain Huddy 's 
Death, & even at this moment uninformed of the circumstances & 
ever having acted consistently with the Tenor of my Parole I am 
certain in Justice his Death can never effect me, nor do I know why 
my Life should be an Atonement for the Misdemeanors of others. 
I claim protection under the 14th Article of the Capitulation & from 
your Excellency's known Character I have every Right & Reason to 
expect it. 

The same motives that prevailed with your Excellency to re- 
quire an Officer who was not under the Sanction of a treaty of 
Faith, will I hope once more induce you to enquire if there are no 
such Officers at this time of the Denomination unconditional Pris- 
oners. 

I shall at present trouble you with no further representations, 
what other Arguments I may have to urge in my favor are such self 
evident Truths as require no Elucidation. To your Excellency I 
again make my Appeal for Justice & repeat my request that no sud- 
den or hasty proceedings may be held against me. 

I have the Honor to be, your Excellency's Most Obedt Humle 

^^'■^^"*' Charles Asgill 

X,. ^ , ^ ,,,r ,• Lieutt 1st Regt Foot Guards. 

His Excely Genl Washington 

commander in Chief of the American forces.* 
'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 114, 6. 



Asgill's Journey to Chatham 425 

Although Washington had directed that the victim 
should set out on his journey to New Jersey as soon as the 
selection was made, Hazen consented, at the earnest request 
of Major Gordon, to delay Asgill's departure until the next 
morning, in order that time might be allowed to perfect 
Gordon's arrangements for dispatching his letters. Hazen 
insisted, however, that Asgill should be held in custody, and 
should no longer be admitted to his parole. 

The major, having learned that the party of dragoons 
who were to act as the prisoner's escort had arranged for 
regular stopping-places on the road, where forage was to be 
obtained, and that the intervening distances were so great 
that they would reach their destination very promptly, pre- 
vailed upon Hazen to allow him to choose his own stages, 
upon condition that he himself would provide the forage. 
His object was to delay their progress as much as possible, 
in order to allow time for the delivery of his letters; it being 
understood that the prisoner would be executed as soon as 
the journey's end was reached. By thus arranging more fre- 
quent stops, he succeeded in lengthening the journey several 
days; and, considering this to be a service of a public nature, 
he drew £500 from the British paymaster-general to pay for 
the forage and for similar purposes. This expenditure, by 
the way, was regarded with disfavor by the auditors of the 
public accounts, who probably could not understand why 
the British government should he expected to provide forage 
for troops of the enemy; and for a long time they hesitated 
to ratify it.' 

The next morning Captain Asgill set out on his journey 
in the custody of the dragoons, accompanied by his friend 
Major Gordon. General Hazen, whose sympathy for the 
young officer impelled him to take all possible steps to insure 
his personal comfort and alleviate his distress, rode with the 
party for several miles; and upon leaving them, he charged 

' Graham's Memoirs, preface. 



426 History of Chatham 

the dragoon officer to pay strict attention to Gordon's 
wishes, and to implicitly obey any order which he might give, 
not inconsistent with the safekeeping of the prisoner. When 
Philadelphia was reached, Gordon immediately applied to 
the French minister, to several members of Congress, and to 
other persons high in authority, entreating them to intervene 
in Asgill's behalf; but his efforts were in vain. Indeed, 
Captain Graham adds the improbable statement that certain 
persons in that city who seemed disposed to move in the 
matter, received a sudden order to leave town — "a fatal 
sign," says he, "that the resolutions of the government were 
irrevocable."' 

About this time General Washington learned from 
Hazen's letter the falsity of the information previously 
given him that the Americans had no unconditional prisoners 
who were available for the purpose of retaliation. Per- 
ceiving that the sacrifice of a capitulation prisoner was not 
necessary, he promptly dispatched a letter to Hazen in an 
endeavor to rectify the mistake. The general wrote: 

Head Quarters, 4th June, 1782. 

Sir, 

I have received your favr of the 27th. May, and am much 
concerned to find, that Capt Asgill has been sent on, notwithstand- 
ing the Information, which you had received, of there being two 
unconditional Prisoners of War in our possession. I much fear, that 
the Enemy, knowing our delicacy respecting the propriety of Retali- 
ating upon a Capitulation officer in our Care, and being acquainted 
that unconditional prisoners are within our power, will put an 
unfavorable Construction upon this Instance of our Conduct. At 
least, under present Circumstances Capt Asgill's application to Sir 
Guy Carleton will, I fear, be productive of remonstrance and Re- 
crimination only, which may possibly tend to place the Subject upon 
a disadvantageous footing. 

To remedy therefore as soon as possible this mistake, you will 

' United Service Journal, XVI, pt. 3, 318. 



Washington's Order Disobeyep 427 

be pleased immediately to order, that Lieut Turner, the officer you 
mention to be confined in York Gaol, or any other prisoner who 
falls within my first Description, may be conveyed on Phila under 
the same Regulations and Directions as were heretofore given, that 
he may take the place of Capt Asgill. 

In the mean Time, lest any misinformation respecting Lt. Turner, 
may have reached you, which might occasion further Mistake and 
Delay, Capt Asgill will he detained untill I can learn a Certainty of 
Lieut Turner's or some other officer's answering our purpose; and as 
this Detention will leave the Young Gentleman now with us in a very 
disagreeable State of Anxiety and Suspense, I must desire that you 
will be pleased to use every means in your power, to make the greatest 
Despatch in the Execution of this order. 
I am, dear Sir, &c. &c.^ 

For some reason which cannot now be ascertained, the 
above order was not obeyed. Turner was not sent forward 
to talce Asgill's place, and the only effect of the correspond- 
ence respecting him was to delay the execution of the 
prisoner. 

After leaving Philadelphia, Asgill was escorted on his 
journey by a detachment of Olney's Rhode Island troops. 
Washington's order, dated May 15th, and addressed to 
"Major OIney or the Commandg Officer of the Rhode 
Island Regt in Philadelphia," reads in part as follows: 

Sir 

Immediately upon receipt of this, you will put the Rhode 
Island Regt. in motion, and conduct it by easy marches, & the most 
convenient route, to join the Army on the North River. You must 
take care to bring on with you every man who is able to march, 
e.xcept such a Detachment as the Secry at War may think proper to 
order as an Escort for the British Officer who is to be sent to the 
Jersey Line for the purpose of Retaliation ; this Detachment which 
ought to be composed of picked men under a careful Officer is to 
join the Regt, where ever it may be as soon as that duty is per- 
formed.^ 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B, XV, pt. I, 383. 
" Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B. XV, pt. I, 295. 



428 History of Chatham 

Much of the correspondence in the Asgill case from this 
time forward is of especial interest because of its close re- 
lation to Chatham. The letter given below contains Wash- 
ington's instructions to Colonel Elias Dayton, commanding 
the New Jersey line, to whom was intrusted the painful duty 
of carrying the execution into effect. The New Jersey 
troops at that time were encamped in the Loantaka valley, 
near Morristown,' occupying a number of rude cabins or 
huts; but Dayton had his residence at Chatham, and it was 
to this village that his instructions were sent. 

I 
Head Quarters, 4 June, 1782. 

Col. Elias Dayton, 

2nd. New Jersey Regt. 
Chatham. 
Sir, 

I am just informed by the secretary at war, that Captain 
Asgill, of the British guards, an unfortunate officer, who is des- 
tined to be the unhappy victim to atone for the death of Captain 
Huddy, had arrived in Philadelphia, and would set off very soon 
for the Jersey line, the place assigned for his execution. He will 
probably arrive as soon as this will reach you, and will be attended 
by Captain Ludlow, his friend, whom he wishes to be admitted to 
go to New York, with an address to Sir Guy Carleton on his 
behalf. 

You will therefore give permission to Captain Ludlow to go 

' In the AVtc Jersey Journal, of February 6, 1782, Daniel Pierson adver- 
tises a farm for sale, three miles from Morristown on the road to Chatham, 
where the Jersey troops are hutted. This phraseology, like that often found 
in newspapers of the present day, is somewhat ambiguous, but the author 
understands it to mean that the Jersey camp was three miles from Morris- 
town. Some of the New Jersey troops, however, were stationed at Chat- 
ham during the following summer, as thus reported in Rivington's Royal 
Gazelle, of New York, under date of August 14: "We are informed that 
the Rebels have their artillery at Burlington ; a party of Jersey troops at 
Chatham, and what they call the New York line at Pompton. These are 
about 2,000, and the residue of their army (about as many) are in the 
Highlands. The soldiers are in a mutinous temper for want of pay, and 
under the strictest watch and discipline and are paraded THRICE in every 
twenty-four hours." 



Instructions Respecting Asgill 429 

b\- the way of Dobb's Ferry' to New York, with such representa- 
tion as Captain Asgill shall please to make to Sir Guy. 

At the same time I wish you to intimate to the gentlemen, 
that, although I am deeply affected with the unhappy fate, to 
which Captain Asgill is subjected, yet, that it will be to no purpose 
for them to make any representation to Sir Guy Carleton, which 
may serve to draw on a discussion of the present point of retalia- 
tion ; that, in the state to which the matter has been suffered to run, 
all argumentation on the subject is entirely precluded on my part ; 
that my resolutions have been grounded on so mature deliberation, 
that they must remain unalterably fixed. You will also inform the 
gentlemen, that, while my duty calls me to make this decisive de- 
termination, humanity dictates a tear for the unfortunate offering, 
and inclines me to say, that I most devoutly wish his life may be 
saved. This happy event may be attained, but it must be effected 
by the British Commander-in-chief. He knows the alternative, 
which will accomplish it; and he knows, that this alternative only 
can avert the dire extremity from the innocent, and that in this 
way alone the manes of the murdered Captain Huddy will be best 
appeased. 

[In the draft of this letter the following paragraph is stricken 
out: I wish you also to inform Capn Asgill, with all the ten- 
derness possible, that no address from him or any of his friends 
can be admitted from them directly to me— that I can attend to no 
application but such as shall be made by the British Commander- 
in-chief.] 

In the mean time, while this is doing, I must beg that you will 
be pleased to treat Captain Asgill with every tender attention and 
politeness (consistent with his present situation), which his rank, 
fortune, and connections, together with his unfortunate state,' 
demand. 

I am, dear Sir, &c. &c. 

Go. W.'VSHINGTON'.'-' 

In due time the party having Asgill in custody arrived 

'Washington had previously ordered that no flag should pass to or from 
Ma ^"i"7n2 ""^ Pi-f'^^t. "«Pf at Dobbs' Ferry.— Neu' Jersey Gazette, 

'Columbian Magazine, January, 1787. 



430 History of Chatham 

at their destination, and turned over their prisoner to 
Colonel Dayton; but in compHance with Washington's in- 
structions that he should be treated with the greatest kind- 
ness, the captive was not placed in confinement, nor even 
required to remain at the camp; but was admitted to his 
parole, and allowed to take up his residence at Dayton's 
headquarters in Chatham. He arrived at this village early 
in June,' and remained there (though perhaps not continu- 
ously) until the 17th of November.- 

GORDON TO CARLETON. 

Colonel Dayton's Quarters 
Chatham June 3d. 1782 
Sir, 

The last Time I had the honor of addressing your Excellency 
was by Captain Ludlow, when I informed you of Captain Asgill's 
being made close Prisoner. We are now here under Colonel Day- 
ton, who commands the Jersey Line, and in all probability will re- 
main here some Time. The disagreeable Situation we are under 
will I hope plead my Excuse with your Excellency, for begging that 
you will send your Commands as soon as possible. It is with pain 
I repeat to your Excellency the Opinion of the People from Lancaster 
to this Place, that Captain Asgill must suffer, unless one of the Per- 
petrators is given up. 

I have the Honor to be Sir 

Your Excellency's Most obedt. humble Servt. 

James Gordon 
Major 80th Regt. 
His Excellency 

Sir Guy Carleton K B^ 

The order for the execution, though daily expected, was 

' Colonel Matthias Ogden, in a letter dated Bottle Hill, June 5, state!) 
that Captain Asgill and his friend Major Gordon have arrived at Chatham. 
— Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 57, 79. 

" Neiu Jersey Gazette, November 27, 1782. 

'American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution, Vol. 27, No. 3; copy 
in Library of Congress. 



Washington's Humane Procrastination 431 

not issued. In view of the circumstances, Washington felt 
justified in taking the proposed step, although conscious of 
the impropriety of executing a capitulation prisoner; yet his 
desire was not to sacrifice the life of the unfortunate victim, 
but to compel the surrender of Lippincott; and he could not 
bring himself to order the death of an innocent man. He 
repeatedly declared that his purpose was unalterably fixed; 
and his letters to Clinton and Carleton contained the solemn 
assurance that Asgill's life would be forfeited if justice were 
denied. But both Clinton and Carleton, although denounc- 
ing the murder of Huddy in the strongest terms, not only in 
their letters to Washington, but in their official reports to 
the British government' persistently refused to give up the 
murderer; their obstinancy being probably due to pressure 
brought to bear by influential tories in New York. 

Growing impatient at the delay in learning the result of 
Asgill's appeal to Carleton, Washington wrote to Dayton 
the following request for information : 

Head Quarters Uth June 1782. 
Sir 

You will inform me as early as possible the present Situation 
of Capt Asgill, the prisoner destined for Retaliation, and what 
prospect he has of relief from his Application to Sir Guy Carleton, 
which I have been informed he has made thro his Friend Capt Lud- 
low. I have heard nothing yet from N York in Consequence of this 
Application. His Fate will be suspended 'till I can be informed 
the Decision of Sir Guy but I am impatient least this should be 
unreasonably delayed — the Enemy ought to have learned before 
this, that my Resolutions are not to be trifled with. 

I am Sr 
Colo Dayton. 
P. S.: 

I am informed that Capt Asgill is at Chatham — without 

' Sparks's Writings of Washington, VIII. 337 n. 



432 History of Chatham 

guard, and under no Constraint. This, if true, is certainly wrong. 
I wish to have the young gentleman treated with all the tenderness 
possible, consistent with his present situation ; but, until his Fate 
is determined, he must be considered as a close prisoner, and be kept 
in the greatest Security. I request, therefore, that he be sent imme- 
diately to the Jersey line, where he is to be kept a close prisoner, 
in perfect security, until further orders.^ 

From the New Jersey Journal of Chatham, June 19, 
1782: 

CHATHAM, June 19. Captain Asgill still remains at this 
place, and we are informed an order has come from his Excellency 
General Washington for his close confinement. 

ASGILL TO WASHINGTON. 

Coll Daytons Quarters 

Chatham May [June] 17th 1782. 
Sir — 

On the 30th of last Month I had the Honor of addressing 
your Excellency in writing, stating the manner of my Confinement 
& the Circumstances that induced me to claim your protection^ 
being ignorant of the fate of my letter, it would be very satisfac- 
tory to me, if your Excellency would be pleased to inform me if 
it has been received, in consequence of your Orders, Coll. Dayton 
was desirous of removing me to Camp but being ill with a fever 
I prevailed on him to let me remain at his Quarters close confined, 
which Indulgence I hope will not be disapproved of. I cannot 
conclude without expressing my gratitude to your Excellency for 
ordering Coll Dayton to favor me as much as my situation would 
admit of & in justice to him I must acknowledge the feeling & 
attentive manner in which those Commands were executed. 
I have the Honor to be with great Respect 

Your Excellys Most Obedt Humbl Servt 

Charles Asgill, 
Lieut & Capt 1st Regt Foot Guards. 
His Excy Genl Washington 
Commr in Chief. - 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B. XV, pt. 1, 415, et seq. 
"Washington Papers in Library of Congress, U+, 12. 



Davion's Reports 433 

DAYTON TO WASHINGTON. 

c- Chatham, June 17th 1782. 

bir -^ 

Capt. Asgill has been at Chatham iiitherto, but not free from 
any constraint, as your Excellency has been informed. I have 
ordered him to the Huts to be confined agreeable to orders. He 
hourly e.xpects letter from his friend which I expect will be delayed 
untill the sentence of the court is known, which has been sitting 
for some days in New York for the trial of Lipincut. Genl. Pat- 
erson is president of the court who is said to have prejudged the 
matter unfavourable to Lipincut. 

***** 

I am your Excellys Most Obedient Very Humble servant 

Elias Dayton.' 

DAYTON TO WASHINGTON. 

June 18th 1782. 
Sir 

In my letter of yesterday I informed your E.xcellency that I 
had ordered Capt. Asgil to the Jersey Huts but upon waiting on 
him today I found him in such a situation that humanity would 
have shuddered at the idea of his removal he has been in a fever 
for some time past and the agitation of his mind upon the appre- 
hension of less agreeable quarters and perhaps more indelicate treat- 
ment have increased it to a very considerable degree. Presuming 
therefore on your Excellencys lenity, and that his safety was the 
only object, I have for the present confined him a close prisoner 
at my own quarters where he will be in perfect security until far- 
ther orders. I wish to make it my study at all times to obey liter- 
ally every order from my superior officers and especially from your 
Excellency, but my feelings for the innocent & distressed urged me 
to take time to make representation. 

I have the honor to be 

Your Excellencys most Hbl. servant 
His Excellency General Washington.^ ^^^^^ Dayton. 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 57, 160. 
'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 57, 172. 



434 History of Chatham 

WASHINGTON TO DAYTON. 

Head Quarters 22nd June. 
Sir 

I have reed your two Letters of the 17th and 18th Instant. 

The only object I had in view, in ordering Captain Asgill to be 
confined at the Huts, was the perfect security of the Prisoner — 
this must be attended to; but I am very willing, and indeed wish, 
that every indulgence which is not inconsistent with that may be 
granted to him. And so with respect to Captain Schaak.' 

'Captain John Schaak, of the 57th British regiment was captured in a 
small skirmish on the Shrewsbury river during the evening of May 25, 1782. 
— New Jersey Gazette, June 5, 17S2. Dayton, in a letter to Washington of 
June 17, says: "Capt. Schaak, of the 57th Regit., whom your Excellency 
mentions in your last letter, is now at the Huts in close confinement, he is 
not wounded as reported but was indulged by Mr. Adams to continue at 
El[izabeth] Town until his servant & baggage could be sent him from 
Sandy Hook." On November 15th., about the time of Asgill's release, Schaak 
wrote to Sir Guy Carleton requesting his aid to extricate him from the 
prison where he had been confined the last five months without any reason 
assigned. The letter is dated "near Chatham." and is marked "by Capt. 
Asgill." — American MSS. in the Royal Institution, "Carleton Papers," III, 
224. Colonel Tilghman, one of Washington's aides, wrote on November 
21st. to Lieutenant Rhea, who commanded at the Jersey huts near Morris- 
town in the absence of Colonel Dayton: "You will be pleased to direct 
Capt. Schaiak to repair to Dobbs' Ferry, where he will meet Lt. Coll. Smith 
Commy of prisoners. He will take his parole and permit him to go into 
New York." — H'ashington Papers m Library of Congress. But this order, 
apparently, was not obeyed. Carleton, on the 11th. of December, wrote to 
Washington: "The liberation of Captain Asgill was I trust founded on the 
equal principles of Justice and Humanity, and, I could wish. Sir, that Cap- 
tain Schaak was also released, not only to close a question of such intricacy 
that justice cannot act upon it on either side without losing its quality, but 
as there are also circumstances of ill health and infirmities, I presume not 
unknown to your Excellency, attending that Gentleman, which may render 
his confinement to both sides perhaps, equally unpleasant and unbecoming." 
— Papers of the Continental Congress, 152, ik 4^, in Congressional 
Library. On January 15, 1783, Washington wrote to Dayton, congratulat- 
ing him upon his promotion to the rank of brigadier, and adding: "If Cap 
Shaack is not yet gone in to New York I must request you to take measures 
to oblige him to go in." — IVashington Papers in Library of Congress, B. XVI, 
pt. I, ISQ. Dayton replied as follows: 

Chatham Jana 20th 1783. 
Sir 

Your Excellency's letter of the 15th came safely to hand. I consider 
myself honored by your Excellency's congratulation on my late promotion 
& am highly indebted for the part your Excellency was pleased to take on 
that Occasion, A little time will be requisite for some necessary prepara- 
tions which shall not detain me longer than this week, when I shall repair 
to camp without loss of time. Capt. Schaak is still at bottle hill, where 
he has contracted debts to a considerable amount, he pretends he expects 
money from New York to discharge them, but he docs not appear to be very 



Letters Respecting Asgill 435 

When I first ordered on an Officer for the purpose of retalia- 
tion, I expressed my willingness that he should make any application 
he thought proper to the British Commander in Chief in whose power 
alone it lay to arrest his destiny; but I at the same time desired it to 
be anounced, that I would receive no application nor answer nay 
Letter on the subject, which did not inform me that satisfaction was 
made for the Death of Captain Huddy. 

I iramagine you was not informed of this circumstance, or you 
would have prevented Major Gordons applications on the subject. 

I am Sir Your very humble Servant 

Go. Washington.' 

GREVILLE TO DAYTON. 

York Town, Pennsylvania, 
July ye 27th. 1782 
Sir 

I take the Liberty of enclosing of Letter for my particular 
friend, Cap. Asgill, the conveying it to him will be the addition of 
one favour to the many I understand he has received from you. 
I have the Honour to be with respect and Esteem 
your most Obedient Servant 

Henry Greville 
Lt and Capn Guards. 
[Addressed:] 
For Colonel Dayton 
Chatham, Jersey. - 

WASHINGTON TO LUDLOW. 

Head Qrs. Augt 5th, 1782. 
Sir, 

Persuaded that your desire to visit Capt Asgill at Chatham, is 
founded on motives of friendship and humanity only, I enclose you a 
Passport for the gratification of it. 

anxious about going into New York, owing I believe principally to a female 
connexion he is said to have lately made. 

I have the honor to be yr. Excellencys Most Hbl servant, 

Elias D.wton. 
IblJ., 6i, go. 
' Dayton Papers in Library of the New Jersey Historical Society. 
"Dayton Papers in Library of the New Jersey Historical Society. 



436 History of Chatham 

The inclosed Letters for that Gentleman came to me from New 
York, in the condition you will receive them. You will have an 
opportunity "f presenting them with yourself. Your own letter 
came under cover to me via Ostend. 

1 have the honor to be, Sir, yr most Ob Sv 

Go. Washington. 
[Addressed:] 
To Captain Ludlo\\', 

1st. bat. British guards, New York.' 

PASSPORT. 

Captn Ludler of the British Guards, has my permission (with his 
Servant) to pass the American Post at Dobb's ferry, & proceed to 
Chatham. He has liberty also to return to New York the same 
way. 

Given at Head Qrs, 5th. Augt 1782. 

Go. Washington. 
The Commandg Officer at Dobbs's.- 

LUDLOW TO WASHINGTON. 

Dobb's Ferry August ye 14th. 
Sir, 

I have the honor to acquaint your Excellency that I arrived this 
morning, according to your permission, at Dobb's Ferry; Sir Guy 
Carleton took the opportunity of my coming here to send some dis- 
patches; which he wished me to have delivered m person to you; but 
finding that inconsistent with the orders, delivered to Major Clift 
the commanding Officer at this Post. I shall proceed to Chatham, & 
there wait your Excellency's Commands. 

I have the honor to be Sir, with the greatest respect your most 
Obed: &c. 

George Ludlow. 
His Excellency Genl. Washington.^ 

'Columbian Magazine, February, 1787; Washington Papers in Library 
)it Congress, E. 505. 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, E. 507. 
• Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 58, 179. 



CHAPTER XIX 

The Asgill Case continued — Eftuits uf the Prisoner's Friends to 
obtain his Release — Washington refers the Matter to Con- 
gress — Asgill's Correspondence — Intervention of the French 
Court — Asgill is released by Congressional Resolution. 

THROUGH the long and weary months of the summer 
of 1782 Captain Asgill remained at Chatham in a 
state of constant anxiety and suspense, dreading from day 
to day that the order for his execution would be issued. To 
add to his distress, it was erroneously reported in America 
during his captivity that his father, Sir Charles Asgill, who 
was known to be seriously ill, had passed away, and his 
captors unintentionally caused him a painful shock by ad- 
dressing him with the family title; though later an express 
from New York gave him reason to hope that the report of 
his father's death was incorrect.' The captive, however, 
was under little restraint. Colonel Dayton treated him as a 
guest rather than a prisoner, permitting him to ride on 
horseback for long distances about the surrounding country, 
sometimes passing within ten or twelve miles of the British 
lines,- and on more than one occasion allowing him to send 
his confidential servant to New York." But these privileges 
were doubtless curtailed after the receipt of Washington's 
order that greater care should be taken to insure the safe- 
keeping of the prisoner. 

During the whole period of Asgill's capti\ity at Chat- 
ham he seems to have been attended by his faithful friend 
Major (jordon, who was untiring in his efforts to bring 

' AViv Jersey Gazelle, December 11, 178.?. 
'Ford's Writings of Washington, XI, 38. 
■' Graham's Memoirs, 95. 



438 History of Chatham 

about the prisoner's release. The major exhausted every 
expedient that his ingenuity could devise, even persuading 
the relatives of the murdered Huddy to exert themselves in 
Asgill's behalf; and Captain Graham alleges that, with the 
assistance of some friends and sympathizers among the fair 
sex residing in Chatham, he formed a plan for Asgill's 
escape, which would have been attempted had the execution 
been ordered — a plan which was so carefully laid that its 
advocates were confident of its success. 

Asgill's unfortunate situation excited widespread 
sympathy. The people desired that the murderer should be 
brought to justice, and not that an innocent man should 
suffer for the crime. Captain Adam Huyler of New Bruns- 
wick, a warm friend of Huddy, made a daring attempt to 
kidnap Lippincott out of the heart of New York, but was 
unsuccessful, owing to the latter's absence from home.* 
Tom Payne, the famous essayist, published in the Neiv 
Jersey Gazette of June 12th a resume of the Asgill case, 
addressed to Carleton, in which he asserted that if the 
captain died it would indicate that Carleton esteemed his life 
of less value than the murderer's, and that his death would 
be as directly chargeable to the British commander as if the 
latter had himself tied the rope around the young officer's 
neck. 

At length, however, circumstances arose which changed 
the aspect of the case. While the matter was still pending, 
and Washington was negotiating for Lippincott's surrender, 
the preliminary articles of peace were announced," and this 
at once placed the affair in a different light; for, as the sole 
object of retaliation was to prevent the repetition of the 
enemy's crimes, the measure would be clearly unnecessary 
and inoperative if, as then appeared, hostilities were drawing 

'Sabine's Loyalists, U, 18; Lee's New Jersey as a Colony and as a 
State, n, 250. 

' Boudinot's Elias Boudinot, 248. 



The Matter Is Referred to Congress 439 

to a close. During the latter part of the summer Washing- 
ton referred the case to Congress, and asked them to decide 
whether, in view of all the circumstances, it was their wish 
that Asgill should be put to death. He wrote to the presi- 
dent of Congress: 

Head-Quarters, Newberg, 
19 Augt, 1782. 
Sir, 

Congress has been already furnished with Copies of all letters 
which had passed between the Commanders-in-Chief of the British 
Forces in New York and myself, respecting the matter of Captain 
Huddy, previous to the last of July. I now have the honor to 
inclose Sir Guy Carleton's letter of the 1st. instant, (in reply to 
mine of the 25th. ultimo,) and that of the 13th., which accom- 
panied the proceedings of the General Court-Martial for the trial of 
Captain Lippincot. The proceedings, together with such other 
documents as relate to that unfortunate transaction, I also trans- 
mit by this opportunity. 

As Sir Guy Carleton, notwithstanding the acquittal of Lip- 
pincot, reprobates the measure in unequivcal terms, and has given 
assurances of prosecuting a further enquin', it has changed the 
Ground I was proceeding upon, and placed the matter upon an 
e.\tremel\- delicate footing. 

It would be assuming in me to ascribe causes to actions dif- 
ferent from those which are ostensibly and plausibly assigned ; but, 
admitting that General Carleton has no other object but to procras- 
tmate, he has, by disavowing the act, by declaring that it is held in 
abhorrence, by not even sanctioning the motives which appear to 
have influenced Lippincot to become the executioner of Huddy, 
and by giving the strongest assurances that further inquisition shall 
be made, so far manifested the appearance of an earnest desire to 
bring the guilty to punishment, that I fear an act of retaliation 
upon an innocent person, before the result of his inquisition is 
known, would be considered by an impartial and unprejudiced 
World in an unfavorable and perhaps unjustifiable poun of view. 
More especially as the great end proposed by retaliation, which is 
to prevent a repetition of outrages, has been in a manner answered ; 



440 History of Chatham 

for, you will please to observe, by the extract of General Carle- 
ton's letter of the 26 of April to Govr Franklin, that he has expressly 
forbidden the Board of Directors to remove or exchange in future 
any prisoners of War in the custody of their Commissary without 
having first obtained his approbation and orders. 

The same reasons which induced me to lay the first steps I 
took in this affair before Congress, urge me to submit it to them 
at its present stage. It is a great national concern, upon which an 
individual ought not to decide. I shall be glad to be favored with 
the determination of Congress as early as possible, as I shall sus- 
pend giving my answer to Sir Guy Carleton until I am informed 
how far they are satisfied with his conduct hitherto. 

I cannot close this letter without making a remark upon that 
part of Sir Guy's in which he charges me with want of humanity 
in selecting a Victim from among the British officers as early as I 
did. He ought to consider that, by the usages of War, and upon 
the principles of retaliation, I should have been justified in execut- 
ing an officer of equal rank with Capt Huddy immediately upon 
receiving proof of his murder, and then informing Sir Henry Clin- 
ton that I had done so. Besides, it was impossible for me to have 
foreseen that it would be so very long before the matter would be 
brought to some kind of issue. ^ 

Annoyed by the failure of the legislative body to take 
action upon the case, Washington wrote a more insistent 
request for instructions, addressing this letter to James 
Duane, a representative from New York, and a member of 
the committee to which the Asgill matter had been referred. 

Verplanks Point, .?Oth. Sepr. 1782. 
Dear Sir, 

I shall be obliged to you, or some friend in Congress, to inform 
me what has been, or is likely to be done, with respect to my refer- 
ence of the case of Captn Wm. Huddy? 

I cannot forbear complaining of the cruel situation I now am, 
and oftentimes have been placed in, by the silence of Congress in 

' Washington Papers jii Library of Congress, A. VI, pt. II, 263. 



The Matter Is Referred to Concjress 441 

matters of high importance, and which the good of Service, and m> 
official duty has obliged me to call upon them (as the Sovereign 
power of these United States) to decide. 

*** *»*****»* ***#«*»« 
The particular cause of it [his disquietude] at this time arises 
from two things, first, while I am totally silent to the public, 
waiting the decision of Congress on the case of Huddy, I see publica- 
tions on this head importing reflections in one of the Pennsylvania 
Papers, which no man could have made, that had not access' to my 
official letter of the 19th. of August to Congress; and, secondly, be- 
cause I feel e.xceedingly for Captn Asgill. who was designated by 
Lot as a victim to the Manes of Captn Huddy. 

While retaliation was apparently necessar\, ho\ve\er disagree- 
able in itself, I had no repugnance to the measure, but, when the 
end proposed by it is answered, by a disavowal of the Act.'bv a disso- 
lution ot the Board of Refugees, a promise, whether with or with- 
out meaning to comply with it, I shall not determine, that further 
mquisition should be made into the matter. I thought it incumbent 
upon me to have the sense of Congress, uho had most explicith 
approved, and impliedly indeed ordered retaliation to take place 
before I proceeded any further in the matter. 

The letter of Asgill, (a copy of which I inclose) and the situa- 
tion ot his Father, which I am made acquainted with bv the British 
pnnts, work too powerfully upon my humanit^• not to wish that 
Congress would chalk a line for me to walk bv in this business To 
effect this, IS the cause of the trouble you now recei^■e from Dr 
Sir, Yr Most obedt and Most Hble Serv, 

Go. Washington.' 

Still Congress did not act. On October 7th the general 
wrote to the secretary of war: 

The delay of Congress places me not only in a very 

delicate, but a very awkward situation with the expecting World 
Was 1 to give my private opinion respecting Asgill, I should pro- 
nounce in favour of his being released from his duress, and that he 
should be permitted to go to his friends in Europe.^ 

; Washington Papers in Library of Congress, A. VI. p,. u 6n3 
lota., 36. . ■ 



442 History of Chatham 

DAYTON TO ASGILL. 

[September, 1782.] 
Sir: 

I took the first opportunity of making known your request & 
Situation to his Excy Gen Washington, but am unhappy in being 
obliged to acquaint you that the former cannot be complied with, nor 
the latter changed, until the Sense of Congress (who now have 
under consideration the letters from Sir Guy Carleton upon the 
subject) is known. Whenever their Decision & that of the Genl 
is made known, I shall take pleasure in relieving your anxiety by an 
immediate communication of their determination to you, which I hope 
will be a favorable one.^ 

ASGILL TO DAYTON. 

Chatham, Septr. 5th. 1782. 
Sir: 

I am extreamly obliged to you for your early attention in 
writing to me, & am very sorry my request cannot be complied with, 
when you first informed me that it was Genl Washington's Order 
that I should be admitted on Parole, I naturally concluded that 
every Idea of retaliating upon me for the Murder of Capt. Huddy 
was given up by his Excellency, & my only remaining wish to com- 
pleat my happiness was, that you should procure Genl Washing- 
ton's Permission for me to go to Europe, & in consequence buoyed 
myself with the hopes of soon revisiting those, who must have long 
mourned my unhappy confinement, & since that time till the receipt 
of yours, I began to recruit my health & Spirits, which you with 
pleasure seemed to notice, but now my dejection is equal to my late 
Joy, and those Ideal pleasures are entirely vanished & the Prospect 
of continuing much longer in this dreadfull suspense. I fear that 
if at a future time the Decision proves favorable, it will probably 
be too late to render comfort either to me or my aged Father. As 
soon as you become informed of the determination of Congress, I 
hope you will be kind enough to communicate it to me. 

Being absent from the Inn at Morris Town, where your letter 

'Dayton Papers in Library of the New Jersey Historical Society. 



Asgill's Requests 



443 



was left, I did not hear of it until the next day & received it open. 
Permit me to entreat you to intercede with Gen. Washington 
in my behalf & to assist in relieving my present anxiety. 

Believe me with gratitude for your pity and humane conduct 
towards me, 

Your ever oblig'd obed't serv't 

Charles Asgill. 



Col. Dayton.' 



Sir, 



SAME TO THE SAME. 

Chatham, Sep'br. 6th. 1782. 



Least by any accident you should not receive my letter of the 
5th. inst. which an officer of the Jersey line took charge of, I judged 
it would be best to prevent your conceiving me remiss in answering 
yours to send this duplicate by the Post, thanking you for your very 
early attention in writing to me, tho 1 am sorry my request cannot 
be complied with— when you first informed me that it was Gen- 
eral Washington's orders that I should be admitted on Parole, I 
naturally concluded that every Idea of retaliating upon me for the 
Murder of Capt. Huddy was given up by his Excellency, & my 
only remaining wish to compleat my happiness was, that you would 
procure Genl Washington's permission for me to go to Europe, 
buoyed with the hopes of soon revisiting those who must have long 
mourned my unhappy confinement, 5c since that time till the Receipt 
of yours, my Health and Spirits, which you with pleasure seemed 
to Notice, daily mended, but now how great & afflicting is the change, 
those pleasing Ideas are entirely vanished, & the prospect of continu- 
ing much longer in this dreadful Suspense will I fear if at a future 
time the decision proves favourable, be too late, to render comfort 
either to me or my aged Father. As soon as you become informed 
of the Determination of Congress, I hope you will be kind enough 
to communicate the Resolve to me— being absent from the Inn at 
Morris, where your letter was left, I did not hear of it till the next 
da>-, & then it was received opened. Permit [me] to intreat you to 
intercede with Genl Washington in my behalf, & assist in relieving 
my present anxiety. 

' Dayton Papers in Library of the New Jersey Historical Society. 



444 History of Chatham 

believe me Dear Sir with Gratitude for your feeling & Humane 

conduct to me, 

Your ever Obliged Obedient Servant, 

Charles Asgill. 
P. S. — The Inn at Morris is full & there is no Lodgings for us 
yet a while, but as soon as we hear of any we shall immediately 
return there. 
[Addressed:] 
Col Dayton, 

Commg Jersey Line. 
King's Ferry.' 

SAME TO THE SAME. 

Chatham, Sept'r 12th. 1782. 
Sir 

I hope my great anxiety to obtain permission to return to Europe 
will plead my excuse for giving you so much trouble, the more 
I reflect on my present Situation the more desirous I am for the 
accomplishment of my Wishes, as I conceive myself by being ad- 
mitted on Parole in every respect as before this unhappy affair, 
& not the Object of Reprisal. 

the Confidence I have in your goodness of Heart which 

prompts you to assist the truly unfortunate, leaves me no doubt 

that the consideration of the consequence that must follow much 

further delay in this affair will weigh with you to use j'our utmost 

endeavours toward procuring me Genl. Washington's Permission to 

revisit Friends in England. Believe me with Gratitude & Esteem, 

Your Obligd Ser't 

r , , , , , Chas. Asgill. 

[Addressed:] 

Coll Dayton, 

Commanding the Jersey line. 

King's Ferry. 

if removed by this may be forwarded. - 

' Dayton Papers in Library of New Jersey Historical Society. Dayton 
had been ordered by Washington on August 25 to move his command to 
King's Ferry, leaving behind no officers or soldiers capable of marching 
except twenty invalids from both regiments, with a proportion of non- 
commissioned officers under a vigilant subaltern, to guard the huts, regi- 
mental baggage, and other public property; Captain Asgill to be left on 
parole at Morristown. — Wasliington Papers in Library of Congress, B. XV, 
pt. 2, 137. 

'Dayton Papers in Library of New Jersey Historical Society. 



AsGiLL Appeals to Washington 445 

ASGILL TO WASHINGTON. 

Chatham, Sept 27th. 
Sir 

I hope my unfortunate situation will plead my excuse for 
being so Sollicotous to obtain your Excellency's permission to 
return to Europe. As I am by your Command admitted on 
Parole I am naturally induced to suppose the motives for my late 
confinement are removed, therefore let me intreat your Excellency 
to give me leave to revisit my Friends in Europe, whose concern 
for my Misfortune & anxiety for my return, is be\ond all power 
of Description. 

thro Long Suspense my health is greatly impaired, & unless 
your Excy will be pleased to indulge me in this request, or cause 
me even to be assured of m\- fate I fear fatal consequences may 
attend much longer delay. I hope when your Exy considers that 
I am not in the situation of a Culprit, that while on Parole I never 
acted contrary to the Tenor of it that my chief motives for being 
so eager for further Enlargement is on account of my Family, 
these facts I hope, will operate with your Excellency, to reflect on 
my unhappy Case, & to relieve me from a State, which those only 
can form any Judgment of, who have experienced the Horror at- 
tending it. 

I have the Honor to be Your Excellys Most Obedt Most 
Humbl Servt 

Charles Asgill. 
Lt & Capt Ist Regt Foot Guards. 
His Excellency Genl Washington 

Commander in Chief of the American Forces.^ 

WASHINGTON TO ASGILL. 

Headquarters, 7th. October, 1782. 
Sir, 

I have to acknowledge your Favour of the 27th of Septem- 
ber. 

The circumstances which produced in the first instance your 
unfortunate situation, having in some measure changed their 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 114, 29. 



446 History of Chatham 

ground, the whole matter has been laid before Congress tor their 
directions. I am now awaiting their decision. 

I can assure you I shall be very happy should circumstances 
enable me to announce to you your liberation from your disagree- 
able confinement. 
I am, &c. &c. 

Go. Washington. 
[Addressed :] 

To Capt. Charles Asgill, 
1st bat. British guards, 
prisoner, Chatham.' 

ASGILL TO WASHINGTON. 

Chatham Octr 18th 
Sir— 

I have been honored with your Excellys Letter & am exceed- 
ingly Obliged by the attention to which mine received. I will 
not intrude on your time by repetitions of my Distress, which has 
lately been increased by accounts that my Father is on his Death 
Bed. I have only to entreat as it may be a long while ere Con- 
gress finally determine, that your Excellency will be pleased to 
allow me to go to New York on Parole & to return in case my 
reappearance should hereafter be deemed necessary — if this request 
cannot be granted I hope your Excellency will give orders that my 
Parole may be withdrawn, as that Indulgence without a prospect of 
further Enlargement afifords me not the least satisfaction, I had 
rather endure the most severe confinement than sufifer my Friends 
to remain as at present decieved, fancying ever since my first admis- 
sion on Parole, that I was entirely liberated & no longer the Object 
of retaliation — if your Excelly could form an Idea of my suffer- 
ings I am convinced the trouble I give would be excused. I have 
the Honor to be your Excellency's Most Obedt Hbl Servt 

Charles Asgill. 
Lt & Capt 1st Guards 
His Excy Genl Washington. - 

' Columbian Magazine, February, 1787. 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, 114, 34. 



Activities of Asgill's Friends 447 

Intelligence of Captain Asgill's plight reached London 
on or about the 13th of July," and it created a great sensa- 
tion, not only on account of the dramatic circumstances of 
the case, but because of the young officer's high social stand- 
ing and distinguished connections. According to Baron de 
Grimm, public prints throughout Europe rang with the af- 
fair, causing so much excitement that the interest taken in 
the Revolution itself was to a great extent submerged in that 
of the Asgill case; and the first question asiced of the com- 
mander of every vessel arriving from any American port 
was an inquiry into the captain's fate.' The efforts which 
had been and were still being made in Asgill's behalf by his 
sympathizers in America were surpassed by the activities ol 
his relatives and friends at home. Lady Theresa Asgill, 
his mother, immediately protested to Washington in a let- 
ter which she desired Lord Cornwallis (who had returned 
to England) to send to Carleton to be forwarded to the 
American commander.' Baron de Grinmi is the authority 
for the statement that she applied to the king, who directed 
that the author of a crime which dishonored the English 
nation should be given up to the Americans; but, incredible 
as it may seem, his command was not obeyed.' Richard 
Oswald, a gentleman whom the British ministry had sent 
to Paris a short time before to sound the French govern- 
ment on the subject of peace,' endeavored to persuade Ben- 
jamin Franklin, our representative at the Court of \'er- 
sailles, to exert his influence in Asgill's favor; but Franklin 
assured him that nothing but the surrender of Lippincott 
could save the prisoner's life.'' 

' Letter of James Jay to Washington; Washington Papers in Library of 
Congress, 114, 16. 

" Memoirs of Baron de Grimm and Diderot, II, 244. 

' American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Carleton Papers, III, 52. 

'Memoirs of Baron de Grimm and Diderot, II, 244. 

"Franklin's Works, IX, 373. 

° Perkins's History of the United States, II, 123. 



448 History of Chatham 

Among the varied activities of Lady Asgill in her son's 
behalf the only step which proved efficacious was a direct 
appeal to the court of France — a country then at war with 
her own. On the i 8th of July she addressed the following 
letter to the Count de Vergennes, prime minister of France, 
imploring him to bring the case to the attention of the king, 
and to urge the monarch's intercession. 

If the politeness of the French court will permit a stranger to 
address it, it cannot be doubted but that she who unites in herself all 
the more delicate sensations with which an individual can be pene- 
trated, will be received favorably by a nobleman who reflects honor 
not only on his nation, but on human nature. 

The subject on which I implore your assistance is too heart 
rending to be dwelt on; most probably the public report of it has 
already reached you ; this relieves me from the burthen of so mourn- 
ful a duty. 

My son, my only son, dear to me as he is brave, amiable as he 
is beloved, only nineteen years of age, a prisoner of war in conse- 
quence of the capitulation of Yorktown, is at present confined in 
America as an object of reprisal. Shall the innocent share the fate 
of the guilty? Figure to yourself, Sir, the situation of a family in 
these circumstances. Surrounded as I am with objects of distress, 
bowed down by fear and grief, words are wanting to express what 
I feel, and to paint such a scene of misery; my husband given over 
by his physicians some hours before the arrival of this news, not in 
a condition to be informed of it; my daughter attacked by a fever, 
accompanied by delirium; speaking of her brother in tones of wild- 
ness, and without an interval of reason, unless it be to listen to some 
circumstances which may console her heart. 

Let your sensibility. Sir, paint to you my profound, my inex- 
pressible misery, and plead in my favor ; a word, a word from you, 
like a voice from Heaven, would liberate us from desolation, from 
the last degree of misfortune. I know how far General Washing- 
ton reveres your character. Tell him only that you wish my son 
restored to liberty, and he will restore him to his disponding family; 
he will restore him to happiness. 



Intervention of the French Court 449 

The virtue and courage of my son will justifV this act of clem- 
ency. His honor, Sir, led him to America; he was born to abun- 
dance, to independence, and to the happiest prospects.' 

Permit me once more to entreat the interference of your high 
influence in favor of innocence, and in the cause of justice and 
humanity. Dispatch, Sir, a letter from France to General Wash- 
ington, and favor me with a copy of it, that it may be transmitted 
from hence. 

I feel the whole weight of the liberty taken in presenting this 
request; but I feel confident, whether granted or not, that you will 
pity the distress by which it was suggested; your humanity will drop 
a tear on my fault, and blot it out forever. 

May that Heaven, which I implore, grant that you may never 
need the consolation which you have in your power to bestow. - 

King Louis was deeply touched by this appeal, and he 
directed Vergennes to comply with Lady Asgill's request. 
The prime minister accordingly wrote to Washington: 

It is not in the quality of [the minister of] a King, the friend 
and ally of the United States, (although with the knowledge and 
consent of his Majesty) that I now have the honor to write to your 
E.xcellency. It is as a man of sensibility and a tender father, who 
feels all the force of paternal love, that I take the liberty to address 
to your Exxellency my earnest solicitations in favor of a mother and 
family in tears. Her situation seems the more worthy of notice on 
our part, as it is to the humanity of a nation at war with her own, 
that she has recourse for what she ought to receive from the impar- 
tial justice of her own Generals. 

I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency a copy of a let- 
ter which Lady Asgill has just written me. I am nut known to 
her, nor was I acquainted that her son was the unhappy victim, des- 
tined by lot to expatiate the odious crime that was a formal denial 

'Asgill insisled upon entering the army contrary to the wishes of his 
parents. His father offered to give him a house and £3000 per year if he 
would adopt some other profession.— /oh/vm/ Polillyue dr BruxeUs August 

'Memoirs of Baron de Grimm and Diderot, II, 244. 



450 History of Chatham 

of justice obliges you to avenge. Your Excellency will not read 
this letter without being extremely affected; it had that effect upon 
the King and Queen to whom I communicated it. The goodness 
of their Majestie's hearts induces them to desire, that the inquie- 
tudes of an unfortunate mother may be calmed, and her tenderness 
reassured. I felt, Sir, that there are cases where humanity itself 
exacts the most extreme rigor ; perhaps the one now in question may 
be of the number; but, allowing reprisals to be just, it is not less 
horrid to those who are the victims; and the character of your Excel- 
lency is too well known for me not to be persuaded that you desire 
nothing more than to be able to avoid the disagreeable necessity. 

There is one consideration, Sir, which, though not decisive, may 
have an influence upon your resolution. Captain Asgill is doubtless 
your prisoner, but he is among those whom the King contributed to 
put into your hands at Yorktown. Although this circumstance does 
not- operate as a safeguard, it however justifies the interest I permit 
myself to take in this affair. If it is in your power. Sir, to consider 
and have regard to it, you will do what is agreeable to their Majes- 
ties; the danger of young Asgill, the tears, the despair of his mother, 
affect them sensibly; and they will see with pleasure the hope of con- 
solation shine out for those unfortunate people. 

In seeking to deliver Mr. Asgill from the fate which threatens 
him, I am far from engaging you to secure another victim; the par- 
don, to be perfectly satisfactory, must be entire. I do not imagine it 
can be productive of any bad consequences. If the English general 
has not been able to punish the horrible crime you complain of in so 
exemplary a manner as he should, there is reason to take the most 
efficacious measures to prevent the like in future. 

I sincerely wish. Sir, that my intercession may meet success; the 
sentiment which dictates it, and which you have not ceased to mani- 
fest on every occasion, assures me that you will not be indifferent to 
the prayers and to the tears of a family which has recourse to your 
clemency through me. It is rendering homage to your virtue to im- 
plore it. 

I have the honor to be, with the most perfect consideration. Sir, 
Yours, &c. 

De Vergennes. 
Versailles, 29 July, 1782.' 

' Ford's Writings of Washington, X, 105, n. 



Intervention of the French Court 451 

The letter of the Count de Vergeniies, accompanied by 
a copy of Lady Asgill's petition, was received by Washington 
on October aqth, at which time Congress had still failed to 
reach a decision in the matter. The general immediately 
forwarded the papers to the president of Congress, with 
these words : 

I have the honor to transmit to your Excellency the copy of two 
letters from the Count de Vergennes, which were sent out in the 
packet from England, and have just come to my hands by a flag of 
truce from New York. They contain a ven,- pathetic and affection- 
ate interposition in favor of the life of Captain Asgill. I lose no 
time to forward them by a special messenger to Congress without 
any observations, being persuaded that Congress will not hesitate to 
give a very early decision respecting his further treatment.^ 

One of the members of Congress at that time was Elias 
Boudinot of Elizabeth, N. J., who thus recorded in his 
journal the circumstances under which these letters were 
received, and the effect which they produced: 

A very large Majority of Congress were determined on his 
[Asgill's] E.xecution, and a Motion was made for a Resolution posi- 
tively ordering the immediate Execution. Mr. Duane & myself con- 
sidering the Reasons assigned by the Commander in Chief conclusive, 
made all the Opposition in our Power. We urged every Argument 
that the Peculiarity of the Case suggested, and spent three Days in 
warm Debate, during which more ill Blood appeared in the House, 
than I had seen. Near the close of the third Day, when every Argu- 
ment was exhausted, without any appearance of Success, the Matter 
was brought to a Close, by the Question being ordered to be taken. 
I again rose and told the House, that in so important a Case, where 
the Life of an innocent Person was concerned, we had (though in a 
small Minority) exerted ourselves to the utmost of our Power. We 
had acquitted our Consciences and washed our Hands clean from the 
Blood of that Young Man. That we saw his Fate was sealed. That 

' Ford's Writings of Washington, X, 87. 



452 History of Chatham 

we had nothing to do but request that the Proceedings should appear 
without Doors, as being equal to the Occasion, and the World should 
know that we had conducted the Measure with a serious Solemnity. 
That great Warmth had been occasioned. Some harsh language 
had taken Place. The minds of Gentn had been irritated. I there- 
fore moved that the Question should be put off till the next Morn- 
ing, on the Minority giving their Words, that they would not say 
another Word on the Subject, but the Question should be taken in 
the first Place, after the Meeting as of course. This was unani- 
mously agreed to. The next Morning as soon as the Minutes were 
read, the President announced a Letter from the Commander in 
Chief. On its being read, he stated the rec't of a letter from the 
King and Queen of France inclosing one from Mrs. Asgill the 
Mother of Capt. Asgill to the Queen, that on the Whole was enough 
to move the Heart of a Savage. The Substance was asking the Life 
of joung Asgill. This operated like an electrical Shock. Each 
Member looking on his Neighbor, in Surprise, as if saying here is 
unfair Play. It was suspected to be some Scheme of the Minority. 
The President was interrogated. The Cover of the Letters was 
called for. The General's Signature was examined. In Short, it 
looked so much like something supernatural that even the Minority, 
who were so much pleased with it, could scarcely think it real. After 
being fully convinced of the integrity of the Transaction, a Motion 
was made that the Life of Capt. Asgill should be given as a Compli- 
ment to the King of France. This was unanimously carried on 
which it was moved that the Commander in Chief should remand 
Capt. Asgill to his Quarters at Lancaster. To this I objected. That 
as we considered Capt. Asgill's Life as forfeited, & we had given him 
to the King of France, he was now a free Man, and therefore I 
moved that he should be immediately returned to New York, without 
Exchange. This was also unanimously adopted, and thus we got 
clear of shedding innocent Blood, by a wonderful Interposition of 
Providence.^ 

' Boudiiiot's Elias Boudinot, I, 24!s. 



CHAPTER XX 

The Asgill Case concluded — Asgill leaves Chatham and returns to 
England — Accusations of harsh and cruel Treatment are made — 
Washington denies the Charge — The Asgill Case dramatized in 
France — Asgill's subsequent Career. 

AS soon as Washington learned that Asgill had been 
liberated by Congress, he wrote him this letter, con- 
veying the welcome intelligence that his long captivity was 
at an end : 

Head Quarters, 13th November, 1782. 
Sir, 

It affords me singular pleasure, to have it in my power to trans- 
mit you the inclosed copy of an Act of Congress, of the 7th. instant 
by which you are released from the disagreeable circumstances in 
which you have so long been. Supposing you would wish to go to 
New York as soon as possible, I also inclose a passport for that 
purpose. 

Your letter of the 10th. of October came regularly to my hands. 
I beg you to believe, that my not answering it sooner, did not proceed 
from inattention to you, or want of feeling for your situation. I 
daily expected a determination of your case, and I thought it better 
to await that, than to feed you with hopes that might in the end 
prove fruitless. You will attribute my detention of the inclosed 
letters, which have been in my hands about a fortnight, to the same 
cause. 

I cannot take leave of you Sir, without assuring you, that in 
whatever light my agency in this unpleasing affair may be viewed, 
I was never influenced, thro' the whole of it, by sanguinary mo- 
tives; but by what I conceived a sense of my duty, which loudly 
called upon me to take measures, however disagreeable, to prevent a 
repetition of those enormities, which have been the subject of discus- 
sion. And that this important end is likely to be answered without 



454 History of Chatham 

the effusion of the Blood of an innocent person, is not a greater relief 
to you than it is to Sir 

Yr most obt and hble servt,^ 

From the New Jersey Gazette, of Trenton, November 
27th: 

CHATHAM, November 20. Captain Asgill, who had been 
detained here some months, and was thought would be executed to 
expiate the murder of Captain Hudd)', is discharged by a resolve of 
Congress. He set out from this last Sunday for London, via New 
York. 

From Rivington's Royal Gazette, of New York, Nov- 
ember 20th: 

Yesterday arrived in town Capt. Asgill, of the Guards; this 
Gentleman had sufifered a most anxious and melancholy durance 
during the last summer amongst the Rebels. 

As appears from the above news-items, Captain Asgill 
left Chatham on November 17th; and he hastened to New 
York intent upon taking the first ship to England. Finding 
that the packet Sivallozv, Captain Green, of Falmouth,' had 
just sailed, he abandoned his servant and baggage, procured 
a row-boat, and succeeded in overtaking the vessel. He 
reached his native land in safety on December i8th.' 

Major Gordon, after Asgill's release, returned to the 
prison camp at Lancaster. Before his departure from 
Chatham he addressed a letter to Sir Guy Carleton, of 
which the following is a copy: 

Chatham, November, 1782. 
Sir, 

Captain Asgill will have the honour to deliver this to Your Ex- 

' Washington Papers in Library of Congress, E. 511. 
'Rivington's Royal Gazette, October 23, 1782. 
'McKinnon's Coldstream Guards, II, 19, n. 
* T/ie Remembrancer, 1783, 79. 



Gordon's Departure from Chatham 455 

cellcncy, who is at last set at liberty by a Vote of Congress after a 
long and disagreeable confinement, which he bore with that manly 
fortitude that will forever reflect honour upon himself. 

During the period that he was close confined he had frequent 
opportunities of making his escape, and was often urged to do it 
by annonymous correspondents, one of which assured him that if he 
did not make use of the present moment an order would arrive next 
day from General Washington that would put it out of his power 
forever. This letter he gave me to read, and at the same time told 
me (that unless I wou'd advise him to do it) he never wou'd take a 
step that might be the means of counteracting measures adopted by 
Your Excellency to procure his release, or might bring one of the 
officers of Lord Cornwallis' army into the same predicament, and 
that he had made his mind up for the worst consequences that cou'd 
happen from rebel tyranny. 

I shall expect Your Excellency's commands at Lancaster, for 
which place I set out to-morrow by way of Philadelphia, when I 
shall visit our prisoners in gaol at that place and I will take the first 
opportunity to transmit returns to Your Adjutant General. 

I have the honour to be, &c. &c. 

James Gordon.^ 

Major Gordon seems to have been the chief sufferer 
from the threatened act of retaliation. He took Asgill's 
misfortune keenly to heart, and his health, which previously 
had been somewhat delicate, was permanently impaired by 
the anxieties of the summer. He returned to Lancaster a 
changed and broken man; a lively and jovial disposition 
which had formerly distinguished him gave place to pro- 
found depression; and even his release from captivity upon 
the cessation of hostilities, and subsequent appointment to a 
command at Kingsbridge, New York, with the brevet of 
lieutenant-colonel, failed to restore his health or revive his 
spirits. Captain Graham tells us that Gordon was later 
appointed president of a sort of military court at New York 
which was in session for several weeks, deciding, among 

'American MSS. in the Royal Institution, Carleton Papers, HI, 224. 



456 History of Chatham 

other cases, various disputes between tiie whigs and tories; 
and that the major had won so high a place in the respect 
and esteem of the people of the Jerseys during the summer 
of 1782 that every litigant from this State, whether patriot 
or refugee, eagerly sought to have his cause decided by him. 
Gordon died soon afterwards in the Morris house, now 
known as the Jumel mansion; and during his last moments 
he was greatly cheered and comforted by the knowledge 
that his conduct in the Asgill case had won for him the 
approval and commendation of the Prince of Wales/ 

In order that the motives which actuated Congress in 
liberating Captain Asgill might not be misconstrued, and 
that no doubt or misunderstanding should arise respecting 
the views of that body on the subject of retaliation in gen- 
eral, the following resolutions were passed: 

Friday, November 8th. 1782. 

Resolved. That the Commander-in-Chief be instructed to call, 
in the most pointed terms, on the British commander at New York, 
to fulfil his engagement contained in his letter of the 13th day of 
August last, "to make further inquisition into the murder of Captain 
Huddy, and to pursue it with all the eftect, which a due regard for 
justice will permit." 

Resolved. That to prevent any misconstruction which may 
arise from the Resolution directing Captain Asgill to be set at liberty, 
it be declared, and is hereby declared, that the Commander-in-Chief, 
or commander of a separate army, is, in virtue of the powers vested 
in them respectively, fully authorized and empowered, whenever the 
enemy shall commit any act of cruelty or violence, contrary to the 
laws or usage of war, to demand adequate satisfaction for the same ; 
and in such case, if such satisfaction shall not be given in a reasonable 
or limited time, or shall be refused or evaded under any pretense 
whatever, to cause suitable retaliation forthwith to be made; and 
the United States in Congress assembled will support them in such 
measures.^ 

' Graham's Memoirs, 104, 105. 
' Journals of Congress. 



Rataliation Abandoned 457 

In accordance with the above resokition, Washington 
wrote to Carleton on November 20th, reminding him of 
his promise, and asking to be informed of the probability 
of convicting the culprit. Carleton, however, declined to 
re-open the question, and the matter was permitted to 
drop.' And so the murder of Captain Huddy was never 
avenged. 

Asgill's escape from the ignominous death which 
overshadowed him so long was due to a number of circum- 
stances combining in his favor — to Washington's natural 
repugnance to the shocking measure of hanging an innocent 
man in expatiation of the crime of another; to his doubt of 
the propriety of sacrificing a prisoner who was protected 
by a capitulation, despite the fact that no unconditional 
prisoner of equal rank was available; to his courtesy in 
awaiting the result of the inquiry prosecuted by the British 
general, which held the matter in abeyance until peace was 
m sight, and it became apparent that retaliation was no 
longer necessary as a means of preventing further crimes; 
and lastly, to the intervention of the French court, backed by 
the pathetic letter of Lady AsgiJl. It is difficult, nevertheless, 
to account for the procrastination of Washington in this 
affair; he seems to have shown a vacillation and hesitancy 
quite different from the firmness and decision which gener- 
ally marked his character. In his letters written during the 
early stages of the case he repeatedly declared, in" the 
strongest possible terms, his determination to execute the 
captive if justice could not be otherwise obtained; yet his 
resolution plainly faltered as time went on. His apparent 
willingness to sacrifice a capitulation prisoner in direct viola- 
tion of a treaty which he himself had signed, (a willingness 
which English historians have declared to be the one blot 
upon the otherwise irreproachable character of the Ameri- 
can hero), may be accounted for by the circumstances of the 

Ford's Writings of Washington, X, 106. 



458 History of Chatham 

case, and his belief in the absolute necessity of retaliation; 
but it cannot be explained why, when he learned that the 
Americans had two British officers in their hands who were 
unconditional prisoners, he did not instantly stop all pro- 
ceedings relating to Asgill. and insist that one of them 
should take his place. The general himself was unable to 
explain this point a few years later, when the details of the 
case had escaped his memory. In a letter to Colonel David 
Humphreys written in 1786 he says: "There is one mys- 
tery in the business, which I cannot develop, nor are there 
any papers in my possession, which explain it. Hazen was 
ordered to send an unconditional prisoner. Asgill comes. 
Hazen, or some other, must have given information of a 
Lieutenant Turner (under the former description). Tur- 
ner is ordered on, but never came. Why? I am unable 
to say; nor is there any letter from Hazen (to be found) 
which accounts for the non-compliance with the order. If 
I had not too many causes to distrust my memory, I should 
ascribe it to there having been no such officer, or that he 
was also under capitulation; for Captain Schaach seems to 
have been held as a proper victim after this."' 

The English historians Craik and McFarlane explain 
the matter by ascribing rather unworthy motives to Wash- 
ington and his subordinates. They write: 

It is not quite clear that the designation of this gentleman 
[Asgill] was left to chance. When Hazen sent this victim to Phila- 
delphia, Washington expressed his regret that an unconditional 
prisoner had not been chosen ; and to remedy the mistake he ordered 
that one Lieutenant Turner, a British officer then confined in York 
gaol, who had been taken prisoner without conditions, should be sub- 
stituted for Captain Asgill. But Brigadier Hazen, it appears, never 
obeyed this order, or at least the substitution of the unconditional 

'Ford's Writings of Washington, XI, 60. It is thought that Schaak 
was mentioned inadvertently and that Asgill was meant. There is no 
evidence that Schaak was held for retaliation. 



British Comments 4^9 

prisoner for the conditional one never took place. As Washington 
never submitted against his will to any disobedience of orders on the 
part of his officers, the conclusion is inevitable — that he was not 

anxious there should be any such change The Americans, 

no doubt, thought it proner and spirited to adhere to the principle 
of captain for captain, though Lord Cornwallis' capitulation stood 
m their way; and they may, besides, have given their cruel preference 
to young Asgill from the knowledge of his being a person of family 
and superior consideration, whose fate would excite greater atten- 
tion than that of a more obscure officer. 

Further comment by the same authors is contained in 
the following passage: 

Of this strange affair Washington's most minute and best 
American biographer [Chief Justice Marshall] says not one word, 
though numerous documents relating to it must have stared him in 
the face, and though he must have known that most of these docu- 
ments were given to the world in many publications both French and 
English, and that the story at the time excited almost as much in- 
terest and was as universally known as that of the unfortunate Andre. 
Judge Marshall's silence looks like a confession of the impractica- 
bility of defending his character and conduct in this particular. In 
our eyes few things in the course of this unhappy war seem more 
dishonourable and indefensible, and we believe Washington, as at the 
crisis when he put Major Andre to death and refused him the last 
sad consolation he asked for, was rendered gloomy and irascible by 
the constant and degrading troubles and mortifications in which he 
was involved.' 

Whether Asgill entertained any gratitude toward his 
captors for the kindness and forbearance with which he 
was treated while a prisoner at Chatham is very doubtful; it 
is more likely that he carried with him on his return to 
England a feeling of resentment toward those who had 
compelled him to pass through this trying period of anxiety 

' Pictorial History of England, I, 489. 



460 History of Chatham 

and terror. He returned no answer to Washington's cour- 
teous letter of the 13th of November, and he doubtless 
regarded the commander-in-chief as the author of his mis- 
fortune, who would have been glad to put him to death had 
not Congress been prevailed upon by the French court to 
intervene. The whole incident was calculated to intensify 
the animosity which he naturally felt toward the enemy in 
time of war. Washington's apparent readiness to execute 
a capitulation prisoner was doubtless considered by him, as 
it was by the English people in general, an act of treachery 
and dishonor; and he may have attributed the leniency 
with which he was treated, and the delay in carrying his 
sentence into effect, to Washington's fear of the conse- 
quences of such an act, rather than to his tenderness and 
humanity. 

A few years after Asgill's return to England, stories 
of harsh and cruel treatment, which he was alleged to have 
received while a prisoner at Chatham, began to be circu- 
lated in London, in time finding their way into print, and 
spreading to the continent. These stories were supposed 
to have originated with Asgill himself, and they were given 
due credence in England and F>ance. It was said that 
upon being brought to the place assigned for his execution, 
the captain was closely confined, and that a gibbet was 
erected for his execution directly in front of his prison win- 
dow, which was often pointed out to him in an insulting 
manner by his jailors; and that he believed these and simi- 
lar affronts to have been offered by the connivance of Wash- 
ington, who was eager to execute him, and was restrained 
only by the protests of Rochambeau. It was further 
alleged (and this last statement was accepted without ques- 
tion by Baron de Grimm, and published by him in his 
memoirs) that Asgill was thrice led to the gallows for exe- 
cution, but that on each occasion the commander-in-chief 



ArcrsATioxs of Undue Severity 461 

shrank from the sacrifice of innocent blood, and ordered a 
reprieve.' 

These charges of iihberal treatment were brought to 
Washington's attention through a letter written to Colonel 
Tench Tilghman by a friend in London, which read in part 
as follows: 

I have had it in contemplation to write to you for some time 
past on a subject in which I find myself more and more interested; 
I have endeavored to strike it off from my mind, because I am per- 
suaded that General Washington is too great in himself to be con- 
cerned at any calumny, and his character too fair and pure to need 
any defense of mine. 

I have the honour to be introduced to a party of sages, \\ho 
meet regularly at a coffee house, where they discuss politics, or sub- 
jects to communicate useful knowledge. This set of men often men- 
tion our great and good general, and commonly in a proper manner; 
but some give credit to a charge exhibited against him by j-oung As- 
gill, of illiberal treatment and cruelty towards himself. He alleges, 
that a gibbet was erected before his prison window, and often pointed 
to HI an insulting manner, as good and proper for him to atone for 
Huddy's death, and many other insults, all of which he believes were 
countenanced by general Washington, who was well inclined to 
execute the sentence on him, but was restrained by the French gen- 
eral Rochambeau. I have contended that it was entirely owing to 
the humane procrastination of our general, that captain Asgill did 
not suffer the fate allotted him, and that it was most happy to general 
Washington's good disposition that the French court interposed so 
as to enable him to save Asgill,, and at the same time keep our army 
in temper. 

This affair is stated by young Asgill, and canvassed at the Brit- 
ish court as before related. Xow, sir, not for general Washington's 
sake, who, as I observed before, is above it, but for mine, who take 
pride in him, as I believe every honest American must, I request the 
fa\or that you would inform me fully on the subject, that I may be 

'Memoirs of Baron de Grimm and Diderot, II, 2-W. 



462 History of Chatham 

able to parry the only bad thrust made at our hero in my 
presence.^ 

The letter was never received by Colonel Tilghman, 
who died before its delivery; but it was read by his father, 
and by him the paragraphs above quoted were referred to 
Washington. The latter, in writing to Mr. Tilghman, 
condoling with him upon the death of his son, denied AsglU's 
charge in these words: 

I had laid my acct. for the calumnies of anonymous scribblers, 
but I never before had conceived that such an one as is related, could 
have originated with, or have met the countenance of Capt. Asgill ; 

whose situation often filled mc with the keenest anguish My 

favorable opinion of him, however, if forfeited, if being acquainted 
with these reports, he did not immediately contradict them. That I 
could not have given countenance to the insults which he says were 
offered to his person, especially the grovelling one of erecting a Gib- 
bet before his prison window, will, I expect, readily be believed, when 
I explicitly declare that I never heard of a single attempt to offer 
insult, and that I had every reason to be convinced, that he was 
treated by the officers around him, with all the tenderness and every 
civility in their power. 

I would fain ask Captn. Asgill how he could reconcile 

such belief (if his mind had been seriously impressed with it) to the 
continual indulgencies and procrastinations he had experienced ? 

He will not I presume deny that, if he was admitted to his parole 
within ten or twelve miles of the British lines; — if not to a formal 
parole, to a confidence yet more unlimited — by being permitted, for 
the benefit of his health and recreation of his mind, to ride, not 
merely about the cantonment but into the surrounding country for 
many miles with his friend and companion Maj. Gordon constantly 
attending him. Would not these indulgencies have painted a militarj' 
character to the portrait from whence they flowed? Does he con- 
ceive that discipline was so lax in the American army that any officer 
in it would have granted these liberties to a Person confined by the 

'Columbian Magazine, January, 1787. 



Washington's Annovance 463 

express order of the Commander in Chief, unless authorized to do so 
by the same authority? and to ascribe them to the interference of 
the Count de Rochambeau, is as void of foundation as his other con- 
jectures; for I do not recollect that a sentence ever passed between 
that General and me; directly or indirectly, on the subject. 

This concise account of the treatment of Capt. Asgill, is given 
from a hasty recollection of the circumstances. If I had time, and 
It was essential, by unpacking my papers and recurring to authentic 
files, I might have been more pointed and full. It is in my power, 
at any time, to convince the unbiassed mind, that my conduct through 
the whole of this transaction was neither influenced bv passion, guid- 
ed by inhumanity, or under the control of any interference whatso- 
ever. 1 essayed everything to save the innocent, bring the guilty to 
punishment, and stop the farther perpetration of similar crimes. With 
what success the impartial world must, and certainly will de- 
cide.' 

Not only was Washington annoyed, but his friends and 
admirers were considerably exercised by the aspersions thus 
cast upon his character; and he consulted his former aide-de- 
camp, Colonel David Humphreys, as to the most expeditious 
and efficacious means of disproving these calumnies. Hum- 
phreys decided to publish all military correspondence on the 
case which could be found among Washington's papers; 
knowing that the reiterated instructions contained in the 
general's letters to treat the prisoner with all possible tender- 
ness, completely refuted the accusation of undue severity. 
He obtained permission to take copies of the letters on the 
subject which were contained in Washington's official files, 
and these he published in the Columbian Magazine for 
January and February, 1787. 

If, as commonly believed in this country, these charges 
of cruel treatment were invented by Asgill, the circumstance 
seriously reflects upon his character as a man of veracity and 
honor. It seems well established by the correspondence of 

'Ford's Waitings of Washington, XI, 86. 



464 History of Chatham 

the period that he was not confined in the cantonments; and 
we may dismiss the assertion that a gallows was erected for 
his execution in front of his window — that is to say, in the 
immediate vicinity of Dayton's residence at Chatham — for 
the place assigned for his execution was not in this village, 
but at the encampment in the Loantaka valley. It is possible, 
however, that the story of the gibbet had at least a founda- 
tion of truth, and that Asgill believed it to be accurate. It 
may perhaps be explained in this way: Washington, in a let- 
ter to Dayton of August 25, 1782, directing him to march 
the New Jersey brigade to King'is Ferry, instructed him to 
leave Captain Asgill on parole at Morristown until further 
orders;' and Asgill, in a letter to Dayton written at Chatham 
a few days afterwards, spoke of returning to Morristown 
as soon as accommodations in the inn at that place could be 
secured. Although no more definite record has been found, 
it would thus appear that Asgill spent part of his captivity 
in Morristown, and it is probable that while there he lodged 
in the Arnold tavern, diagonally opposite which, in what is 
now the park, stood the county court-house and jail with 
the gallows near it.- If it is a fact that Asgill was accom- 
modated in this tavern, the gallows may have been in view 
from his chamber window; and it is not unlikely that some 
of the townspeople, enraged by the murder of Huddy, and 
strongly favoring retaliation, gave expression to their anger 
by calling his attention to the gibbet, and reminding him that 
Huddy's death was soon to be avenged. In such case he 
might easily receive the impression that the gallows had been 
erected especially for him.^ 

'Washington Papers in Library of Congress, B. XV, pt. 2, 137. 

■ Sherman's Historic Morristown, 68, 176. 

' Hamilton's History of the Grenadier Guards, and McKinnon's Origin 
and Services of the Coldstream Guards mention the erection of the gallows, 
and add that Asgill was "removed from Lancaster to Chatham loaded with 
chains." This latter statement at least was denied. Edward E. Hale, in 
his Life of Washington, gives the following quotation from Asgill's auto- 
graph written in London in 1783: "In answer to your question if the Ameri- 
cans put me in irons during the term of my confinement, for their sake as 
well as mine, I have the satisfaction to inform you that they never did." 



Loyalist Comment and CRrncisM 465 

Thomas Jones, the tory historian, gives a version of 
the Asglll affair from the royalist point of view, in which due 
emphasis is laid upon the alleged brutality of the American 
officers. His statement, though inaccurate and unreliable in 
many of its details, possesses a certain interest as showing 
the intense acrimony which the case aroused in the minds of 
those in sympathy with the crown. It reads as follows: 

Information of this [Huddy's murder] was soon given to VV^ash- 
mgton, who sent a flag to General Ch'nton, and demanded in peremp- 
tory terms, that the executioner of Huddy, or a person of equal rank, 
should be sent out in order to retaliate upon for, as he termed it, the 
murder of Huddy. In this, Washington showed spirit, decision, 
and resolution. But then, Washington knew his man. Clinton was 
one of the most irresolute, timid, stupid and ignorant animals in the 
world. It is really surprising that a great king should have trusted 
such a man with the command of a great army to quell a great, a 
dangerous, and a stubborn rebellion, in whicb the welfare of the na- 
tion and the honour of the Crown were so imminently concerned. 
Clinton was at a loss what to do. His counsil were consulted. Little 
comfort was obtained. All was amazement, all was terror, and all 

was afright, at head quarters What Clinton had to fear, 

I know not. New York was as strong as it could be made. He 
had in the city and its environs 20,000 men, and it was surrounded 
by men of war. Washington's army did not consist of more than 
10,000 men, and it was in the Highlands, sixty miles off. Yet the 
General appeared to be panic-struck at Washington's demand. The 
Board of Associated Loyalists met. The whole affair was laid be- 
fore them. These gentry all shrunk from the charge. Some declared 
It a falsehood, some attempted to justify it as an act necessary and 
politic b\- way of retaliation, and others pretended a total ignorance 
of the whole transaction. Governor Franklin of New Jersey, how- 
ever, who was at tbe head of the Board, left New York, and came 
to England while the business was transacting. 

Sir Guy Carleton arrived and took the command, and Clinton 
sailed for England. Washington now renewed his demand in a letter 
to Sir Guy, and peremptorily insisted upon a compliance with it. 



466 History of Chatham 

Washington had hitherto dealt with British Generals, whose 

irresolution, indicision, and timidity, were such that with 6,000 men 
and not a ship, he frequently bullied them when at the head of 30,000 
veterans and a victorious navy. Washington thought he could play 
the same game, dance the same jig, and with as much ease insult 

Sir Guy. In this he was, however, mistaken Washington 

finding that in Sir Guy he had neither Sir William Howe nor Sir 
Henry Clinton to deal with, dropped the correspondence, but not his 
design. When a man breaks through the ties of honour, abandons his 
king by violating his oath of allegiance and fidelity, he will go to 
any lengths to serve his purposes, show his power, or gratify his 
vanity. As a specimen of this, mark the sequel. 

Sir Guy having refused Washington's demand, a dif- 
ferent mode was adopted, as well to the scandal of rebels, as of 
their great and good allies, the French. It is to be wished the record 

of it may be handed down to the most distant generations 

Washington finding Sir Guy resolute and positive, took, to the sur- 
prise of all civilized nations, nay to the astonishment of all mankind, 
rebels excepted, this most extraordinary step. He sent to Virginia, 
ordered all the British captains (then upon parole under a solemn 
capitulation) to be called together, and when collected, directed that 
they should cast lots which of them should be executed by way of 
retaliation for the execution of Huddy. This the captains refused 
to do. Upon this refusal Washington ordered an officer of his own 
to cast the lots. He did so, and the lot fell upon Captain Asgill of 
the Guards, as virtuous, as honest and as brave a youth as ever bore 
a commission, the only son of Sir John Asgill, a prominent banker 
in the city of London. 

The British officers then prisoners in Virginia, sent an express 
upon this serious and extraordinary' proceeding to Monsieur de Roch- 
ambeau, then at Williamsburgh, one of the generals who signed the 
capitulation, and of course a guarantor for the punctual, faithful 
and honourable performance of it. The dispatch was delivered. No 
answer was returned. The French are remarkable for politeness. In 
this instance, however. Monsieur de Rochambeau was a manifest 
exception. He had served so long with rebels, the allies of his Sov- 
ereign, that he had imbibed all their principles, contracted all their 
habits, and was as deaf to feelings of humanity as the most obdurate 



a 



Loyalist Comment and Criticism 467 

and inveterate rebel uitliiii the thirteen revolted Colonies. In the 
meantime Captain Asgill was carried in triumph, escorted by a rebel 
puard above 200 miles, from Virginia to the rebel camp in New Jer- 
sey. Captain Asgill was not permitted to come into the presence of 
Washington, but instantly put into a prison, deprived of the liberty 
of pen, ink and paper, his servant refused admittance to him, and 
tlie diet allowed him bread and water, with once a week a scanty 
allowance of animal food. This bespeaks the humanity, the polite- 
ness, the virtue of Washington. Captain Asgill had but one window 
in his apartment, out of which he could peep at the sun, or drawn in 
fresh air. To punish the unhappy youth as much as possible, the rebel 
Chief ordered a gallows erected, 30 feet high, directly in front of, and 
at a small distance from the window, with this inscription in capitals 
"ERECTED FOR THE EXECUTION OF CAPTAIN AS- 
GILL." This gallows and this inscription presented themselves to 
the Captain's eyes whenever he approached the window, which for 
the benefit of fresh air must have been often. This was murdering a 
man by inches. It was a piece of barbarity that none but a rebel 
could be guilty of. Instant execution would soon have put the youth 
out of his pain; it would have been lenity, mercy, kindness, nay, it 
would have been generosit\'. Instead of sufifering one death by an 
immediate execution, the unhappy young soldier must, in contempla- 
tion, have experienced one every day. Every morning that he arose, 
he naturally supposed it was the last of his existence. He never 
looked out of his window but he saw this tremendous instrument of 
death, with the more tremendous inscription, "FOR THE EXECU 
TION OF CAPTAIN ASGILL." At conduct like this all Chris- 
tians must shudder, and execrate the unfeeling severity which could 
be guilty of so deliberate and wanton an act of cruelty. 

Whether Washington's real intention was to have executed Cap- 
tain Asgill is a doubt. That his design was, at least, to frighten Sir 
Guy into a compliance with his demand as to the executioner of 
Huddy, there can be no doubt. In this he was, however, mistaken. 
Sir Guy was not to be bullied, frightened nor insulted. To the sur- 
prise of everj'one Captain Asgill continued in jail a long time, and 
no execution took place. The particulars at length reached England. 
Lady Asgill applied to the Queen of France in behalf of her only 
son, her favorite child. The Queen listened to the tears of a dis- 



468 History of Chatham 

consolate mother, she applied to her royal consort, and he ordered his 
ambassador at Philadelphia to demand his release. This had the de- 
sired effect. Neither Congress nor Washington dared trifle with 
their great and good ally. The Captain was therefore discharged, 
sent to New York, and returned, as from the grave, to his parents, his 
relatives, and his friends in England. \ 

Alexander Garden, who served during the RevoUition- 
ary War in "Light. Horse Harry" Lee's partisan legion, 
comments in these words upon the accusation of undue sever- 
ity in the Asgill case : 

To what, then, but the deadly animosity of a nation instigated 
by the successful opposition to their arms, and the threatening pros- 
pect of the loss of empire, can be attributed the falsehoods and scurili- 
ties viith which the British prints, on both sides of the Atlantic, over- 
flowed? Notwithstanding so satisfactory a termination of this 

eventful business, the British Gazettes continued lavishly to dissemi- 
nate abuse, and even to assert, "that Captain Asgill himself was, on 
all occasions, loud in proclaiming the unncessary rigour extended 
towards him by General Washington, and a scandalous want of 
delicacy on the part of the American oiScers, with whom he came in 
contact." I was greatly surprised at these statements, and loth to 
believe them. I had been a school-fellow of Sir Charles Asgill, an 
inmate of the same boarding-house for several years, and a disposi- 
tion more mild, gentle, and affectionate, I never met with. I 
considered him as possessed of that high sense of honour, which 
characterizes the youths of Westminster in a pre-eminent degree. Con- 
versing some time afterward with Mr. Henry Middleton, of Suf- 
folk, Great Britain, and inquiring, if it was possible that Sir Charles 
Asgill could so far forget his obligations to a generous enemy, as to 
return his kindness with abuse, Mr. Middleton, who had been our 
contemporary at school, and who had kept up a degree of intimacy 
with Sir Charles, denied the justice of the accusation, and declared, 
that the person charged with an act so base, not only spoke with 
gratitude of the conduct of General Washington, but was lavish in 

'Jones's New York in the Revolution, H, 227 et seq. 



'f'liK AsGiLL Case Dramatized 469 

his commendations of Colonel Dayton, and of all the officers of the 
Continental army, whose duty had occasionally introduced them to 
his acquaintance. It may now be too late to remove unfavourable 
impressions on the other side of the Atlantic, (should my essay ever 
reach that far,) but it is still a pleasure to me, to do justice to the 
memory of our beloved Washington, and to free from the imputation 
of duplicity and ingratitude, a gentleman of whose merits I haxe ever 
entertained an opinion truly exalted.' 

The interest which the Asgill case aroused in France 
outlasted the American Revolution, and caused the incident 
to be repeatedly dramatized; the most successful of these 
plays being "Asgill," a prose drama in five acts, written by 
J. S. le Barbier-le-Jeune in 1785. It was dedicated to Lady 
Asgill, and concluded with a letter of thanks from her. The 
play represented Jrazingtou as deploring the necessity of 
executing the hero, though sternly refusing to interfere with 
the course of justice; but finally yielding to the intercession 
of Vergcniies, and infolding Asfrill in a fond embrace, with 
serio-comic enthusiasm. The part of frazbujton was taken 
by the celebrated actor Saint-Prix. Butler, who in reality 
was a leader of the tories during the Revolution, was intro- 
duced in the play as the murderer of Hiiddy, the latter being 
transformed by the dramatist Into a British officer. Other 
leading characters were: two American generals, I.iiicol 
(Lincoln) and Macdnl (McDougall); an English envoy 
named Jostoii (Johnson) ; Mrs. Nelson, a widow, the step- 
mother of the commmder-in-chief ; Mr. Ferguson; and the 
ghost of JJ'azington's son. 

There were three other dramatizations of the Asgill 
case: 

I. "Abdir," a drama in four acts and in verse, by 
M. de Sauvigny; produced in the French theatre in Janu- 
ary, 1785. 

' Garden's -Anecdotes of the Revolution, Ser. 2, 30, 33. 



47° History of Chatham 

2. "Asgill, on rOrpheUii de Pennsyhanie," a melo- 
drama in one act and in prose, with ariettas — "pitiful ditties 
uttered at mournful epoch." Book by B. J. Marsollier, 
music by Delayrac. Presented in the Theatre de I'Opera- 
Comique in March, 1790. 

3. "Asgill, oil le Prlsonnier Anglais," a drama in five 
acts and in verse, by Benoit Michel de Comberousse. Never 
presented in any theatre.' 

Asgill's subsequent career is briefly outlined as follows: 
Upon the death of his father, Sir Charles Asgill, in 1788, 
he succeeded to the baronetcy, and during the same year 
married Maria Sophia, daughter of Sir Charles Ogle, Kt. 
Soon afterwards he was accepted equerry to the Duke of 
York, and in 1790 was promoted to a company of guards 
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He became colonel in 
1795, brigadier on the staff of Ireland in 1797, and major- 
general in 1798. He remained on the staff until 1812, and 
was promoted to the rank of general in 18 14. In the course 
of his services in the field he distinguished himself in Flan- 
ders and in Holland, and later took an active part in sup- 
pressing the Irish rebellion of 1798, during which he par- 
ticipated in the famous battle of Vinegar Hill. He died in 
1823, and, having no children, the baronetcy became extinct. - 

Captain Richard Lippincott, having been acquitted by 
the court-martial, escaped the penalty of his crime. After 
the close of the war, when most of the tories left the United 
States and established homes in Canada, he lived for a 
time at Pinefield, New Brunswick. In recognition of his 
military services throughout the Revolution the British gov- 
ernment granted him the half pay of a captain for life, and 
3000 acres of land in Ontario. A large part of the city of 

'Memoirs of Baron de Grimm and Diederot, H, 244; Appleton's Cyclo- 
paedia of American Biography, H, 159; Balch's The French in America 
(Thos. \V. Balch's Trans.), I, 62, n. ; Wharton's Diplomatic Correspond- 
ence, 463, n. 

'Stephens' Dictionary of National Biography. 



Details Respecting Lippincott 471 

Toronto is built upon this land. His only survivintr child, 
Esther Borden Lippincott, her mother's namesake, married 
George Taylor Dennison of Toronto, in whose house the 
captain died in 1826 at the age of eighty-one.' 

' Ryerson's Royalists, 11, 193. 



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